Dancing In Drag
by squalmasy
Summary: [AU SeiSqu] Squall realizes posing as a girl isn't as easy as he first thought when he meets the challenge of his crossdressing life: Seifer Almasy.
1. So He Can Dance

Wow, so it took me like, 2 hours to finish typing up my reference document for this story. If any of you are looking to write a story in the future, resort to every possible plot bunny you can before taking the last-ditch, omnipresent "High School AU" bunny, because to write a successful story you have to plan out the schedules, and let me tell you...that is HELL.

Maybe this is your classic HS AU story, unoriginal as it may be, but at least I'm not doing that whole, "Squall is a recluse" type thing...well, not _completely_. Rinoa will actually be totally awesome in this story until many chapters later, when---ok, I'll shut up now.

**Disclaimer:** I do not claim the pwnage of any of these charats right here, but I do tell you that this plot bunny here, (holds up the bunny) is mine, and mine alone! His name is Miguelito! Say hello to the nice readers! And remember their faces, because if you're ever stolen by any of them, I want you to bite them real hard:D I never said my plot bunny isn't rabid!

****

_

* * *

_

_The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive._

-Robert Heinlein

******

* * *

**

**Dancing in Drag**

**Chapter 1 : So He Can Dance**

Quistis had heard about people like him. The rare type of person whose legs carried him so naturally that he seemed more fluid than water, more graceful than a swan, and more mysterious than the faint glow on the full moon. Like water in a glass, he swayed from one side to another, dipping down and twirling up, but so aware of himself that he never seemed to come splashing to the ground. It was...

"Beautiful," the blonde woman breathed quietly. It wasn't in her duty or personality to hand out praise as if anyone deserved it, but he certainly did. He didn't stop then, he hadn't heard her. He continued on as if in a trance, and Quistis certainly couldn't object.

Delicate, silken strands of deep brown hair rose and fell rhythmically on his head, fluttering and bobbing like feathers. Black pants stretched to accommodate his movements, shadows from bright studio lights dancing whimsically along every line and fold. His wrists bent and turned, legs carrying him like the elegant movement of royalty. And on the rare moment that he would lift his eyelids from their resting place on the height of his cheek, lashes reflected on the light, small, pouting lips would part to draw a breath and bring him back from ethereality for a split-second and his eyes could be seen for that small increment of time.

Quistis was caught by those eyes and drawn in. The dim blue color shone with a happiness and intensity she was sure had not been there minutes before, and dancing in his irises were specks of silver, sparkling like fairy dust.

Before she could realize what happened, the slow, peaceful music had ended and the boy halted, coming back to reality with such an abrupt difference that it looked to her like an angel fallen from his heavenly dance in the clouds. He suddenly seemed distracted, and his emotions were more complicated than right before. Yes, she had heard about people like him. People who turned into something else when dancing, as if they were merged with a god. It was absolutely fascinating.

"Um."

Quistis blinked out of her thoughts and was forced to stare into those silver-speckled eyes again. It was then she noticed an imperfection, a large, line scar down his forehead and in between his eyes. She wondered briefly how he got it, and then thanked whatever higher forces that were out there that whatever inflicted such a long wound on him hadn't hit his eyes and blinded him. Quistis already was captured by those eyes.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" She asked. He looked away and scratched the base of his neck, at his collarbone.

"Did I get in?" He asked quietly. She blinked and then an amused smiled touched her lips.

"Goodness," she laughed quickly, "I completely forgot about that."

He only looked uncomfortable. Did that mean he didn't get in? He quickly ran over his performance in his mind, anxiously combing for anything he might have done incorrectly. But in all honesty, he didn't remember much of it. He never remembered much after he danced; it was always sort of subconscious and in-the-moment.

"No need to feel nervous," she told him with a whimsical smile, "I think you definitely deserve a place in the advanced class."

His eyes rose up and locked against hers in surprise, hers a purer blue than his own. That was it? He was in?

"I..." His delicate eyebrows fell down from their high place on his forehead and he smiled meekly, tiny enough to be missed if one wasn't looking hard. "Thank you."

Quistis only nodded. "I'll let the registry office know about your schedule, then," she told him. "And..." She hesitated.

He blinked at her.

'_He's not one of many words_,' she mused.

"Don't get yourself in any sticky situations, but if you do, I'm always here. If any of the girls give you a hard time about your clothes, you don't need to make up any stories. I can talk to them."

A faint blush tinted the angel-eyed brunette's cheeks and he looked to the side, frowning slightly.

"Okay."

She smiled.

"I'll be pleased to see you here in class tomorrow." She gave him a dismissing glance, and he nodded back and turned away, picking up his car keys and pulling a dark blue hooded sweater over his white t-shirt. He pulled his feet into short black boots as he got off the dance floor, and turned the doorknob on the studio's exit.

"Oh!"

He turned and glanced at her. She ran over to him, tucking a blond tuft of well-kept hair behind her ear.

"I'm sorry, I never got your name," She explained.

He pushed the door further open and sunlight splashed into the room. He turned to give her one last look, before tossing his head back to face the outdoors.

"...Squall."

And before she could inquire as to his full name, he was gone, the door closed almost in her face. She sighed and rubbed her forehead. He certainly was going to be hard to get to warm up, or at least get to be more gregarious. He didn't seem selfish, just...hardened.

But he should have at least considered giving her his full name! How was she going to ask registry to move him to advanced dance without knowing his last name? She sighed again and turned back to lock up the studio.

Squall.

"Well," she told herself, "at least it's a pretty unique name. I just hope registry doesn't tell me there are two 'Squall's in this school..."

-o-0-o-0-o-

"Done! Come in and check it out, Squally!"

Sunday evening, an evening to beat all evenings, had arrived, and Squall was getting nervous and antsy already. This was his fourth school in the past three years, having transferred from Deling to Timber, from Timber to Trabia, from Trabia to Esthar, and finally, from Esthar to his new school, Balamb. He had been transferred out for the same reason: bullying. Mean, vicious, snarling pug-faced bullies, and giggling girls alike, He was teased him for his passion, his one place to find peace: dancing. That and his delicate build and feminine appearance, one that screamed "GAY" even though he wasn't. Transfers, of course, he had gotten used to, and the same for being the new kid, but this transfer to Balamb was certainly something much bigger than any of the last ones. Hopefully, if this new plan worked, he wouldn't be teased anymore, and he wouldn't be the core of all his family's problems again. He gave a wistful look to his step-sister, Rinoa, who had stayed by his side through all the transfers and agreed to try and make new friends every time just so he could get another chance at safety. He nodded, taking a deep breath and stepping into his room, expecting the worst.

"..."

"Well, Squally? Not bad, huh? Squall...?" Rinoa blinked curiously up at her brother, and saw that he speechless. Even more so than usual. She gave him a concerned stare.

"Hey, you alive in there? Tell me what you think."

"Rinoa..." he blinked and gave her a look that openly expressed his awkward feelings to her. She sighed.

"I know it's going to be hard for you," she explained, "but you're going to have to bite the bullet and just get used to it. Sure, it's going to suck at first, but once you get used to it, you'll be so happy. I swear! Never another bully again."

He gave her an incredulous stare. She stiffened her lips and wore a look that said, "get on with it." The brunette sighed and glanced away. He had had enough of being the weak one in the family. If he couldn't fight back, then this was his only choice. He was going to do it for his mom, and for Rinoa.

Walking slowly up to his closet, Squall frowned hard, and just stared at the piles of unfamiliar clothes, feeling his heart get heavy as he realized none of his old clothes were here, probably for just in case he changed his mind about this whole idea.

'No turning back now,' he told himself. Reluctantly, he slid a hand into a compartment of his closet and felt a soft, gel-like material. He pulled it out.

"..."

Rinoa bit her lip to keep from breaking down in fits of laughter. Her smile stretched across her face and she turned her gaze downward so her brother wouldn't see and get mad. The dark-haired girl stepped closer to him and took it from him, stealing a glance at the hilarious expression on his face.

"This," she said, "is your new best friend: the padded bra. Don't worry, the sales clerk told me it's really comfy." She couldn't suppress the giggle that followed, and received the most feral glare she had ever seen in her life.

"Are you nuts!" He barked, immediately regretting it as his throat constricted painfully from not raising his voice for a long time. All summer long he had been going to voice training sessions, and though they deemed it impossible to raise his voice's pitch by very much, they had at least succeeded in making it a soft and mellow, albeit slightly low sound. Besides, it wasn't as if his voice was very deep to begin with.

"Oh no, bro," she said seriously, "I'm not nuts. Nor am I joking. This is what you have to do."

Squall gritted his teeth and forced himself not to let his turbulent emotions explode in his chest. He was going to go through with this.

_For Mom and Rinoa...For Mom and Rinoa...For Mom and Rinoa... _

"...Fine." He growled, looking away from his grinning step-sister.

He reluctantly tugged his white t-shirt off and dropped his arms, letting her pull on the dreadful item. He wriggled his shoulders uncomfortably. Rinoa stepped back and admired her work, nodding in approval.

"Looks like I got the perfect size for you! Here, it's padded, but you're going to need a little more support if you don't want to look really messed up."

She pounced forward and proceeded to stuff the garment with something strange and unrecognizable. Squall squirmed away from her, turning his back.

"Rinoa," he breathed as he crouched down, his back to the dark-haired girl and a deep frown on his reddened face, "this is humiliating."

"Pffeh! Come on, Squall, be a man!"

"It's kind of hard to do that when I'm wearing a _bra_!" He growled, and Rinoa pouted.

"No more fussing! We've got a lot more than a bra to deal with right now, and you're not going to complain!" She crouched over him and pulled him to his feet.

He frowned and gave her a look that said, "I'll let you humiliate me but that doesn't mean I have to like it." She smirked smugly, ignoring the look and reaching to pull off his black drawstring pants. He flailed.

"Rinoa!"

"What?" She looked up at him with a light frown.

"G-Girls aren't supposed to see their brothers half naked!" He growled, holding his pants up.

"Why, whatever do you mean?" she smiled coyly. "It's just us girls here."

Holy shit.

This was definitely, indisputably, the worst mistake Squall had ever made in his life.

-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-

Onwards! The next chapter should already be up.


	2. So He Wears Skirts

**I'd like to thank all my reviewers! LOL! JK! Chapters 1 and 2 uploaded at the same time, because they just seemed to make better due in two parts. Review!**

**I already disclaimed. :D So don't expect it again! Luvs!**

* * *

_Oh, what a tangled web we weave_

_When we first practice to deceive!_

_-_Sir Walter Scott

**

* * *

**

Dancing in Drag

**Chapter 2: So He Wears Skirts**

Imagine the safest feeling in the world, like being in the arms of someone you love, or being nestled into your warm bed at daybreak. Now multiply it by 100, and add a cherry on top.

At that moment, that would be the best way to describe the _opposite_ of how Squall was feeling. He was beginning to wonder if Rinoa had made a pact with the devil at some point in her lifetime. Why had he ever gone through with this? Being bullied for every last moment of his future life would have been better than this.

He was sitting rather uncomfortably on their bathtub's floor, tied up and unclothed but for his favorite green boxers. When he wriggled, he fell over on his back but when he sat up again, he wriggled. And there was really nothing much besides wriggling that he could do at this point, besides bawl his eyes out, and he didn't really feel up to that.

And there was Rinoa, grinning insanely as she came near. He was afraid. And rightfully so.

"Now this isn't going to hurt a bit," she said, "but only as long as you don't move a muscle!"

He stared at her.

"What isn't going to hurt?"

"Hee hee." She turned to the medicine cabinet and pulled out a few things before returning before Squall's seated and bound body. She had his shaving cream and one of Squall's razors. His face twisted in confusion. He had just shaved that morning, and he usually only did once in a while. His facial hair was tame, thank you very much.

"I'm sorry, but do _you_ see a beard anywhere on my face?" He asked venomously, and Rinoa giggled, shaking her head.

"You're confused, Squally. We're not here to work on your face: that's for later. Right now, we've got to fix a few other things first. We'll get some wax this weekend, but for now..."

He watched as her gaze traveled down from his face to his legs, and in that moment, he swore his heart stopped.

"WHAT!"

"Calm down!" She hushed him, and he started to struggle. She tried to stop him from his crazy struggling but when she realized it didn't work, she narrowed her eyes and pulled the shower head down, aiming it at his face.

"You're going to let me do this, or else you get the boiling hot water treatment," she hissed, knowing all too well that Squall had a strange sensitivity to it. And he stopped struggling.

"...Why?" He asked tiredly.

"What do you mean, 'why'?" She asked him. "You're not real hairy or anything, but you can't wear a skirt without being totally hairless. Oh! Right; I forgot to tell you...I threw out all your pants."

Squall wanted to cry then. He really, really did.

"Rinoa..." he whined.

"Don't whine. It doesn't suit you," She said pointedly, and proceeded to start work upon Squall's poor legs. Now his options were narrowed to just sitting there. After all, if he wriggled, he'd get a face full of scalding hot water.

-o-0-o-0-o-0-o-

"Does every girl wake up this early every day to get ready?"

"I don't know...hey, hold still..."

"I don't get why you have to go this far. I mean, some girls just wear baggy pants and sweaters, don't they?"

"No way am I letting my brother be a dork! You're going to be sexy as hell, and you're going to like it."

"...Why..."

"Because, I don't want to be the girl with the ugly sister. We're gonna be the hottest girls at school, bro!"

"That sounds so wrong," he said, burying his face in his hands.

"SQUALL! Look what you did! Now I have to start over!"

The brunette groaned and dropped his hands from his face again, glaring at his reflection. What the hell was Rinoa doing to him? His eyes were lined with black, and the way his eyes contrasted against it almost blinded him. Funny thing, that his eyes could do that but the rest of his appearance could not. It was honestly sickening, but...he had to admit, Rinoa had done a pretty good job of making him look like a girl. Maybe someday she would be a makeup artist for cross-dressers.

He shifted uncomfortably as Rinoa cleaned up the mishap on his face and dusted something on his cheeks. His legs felt weird, not only did they feel too smooth and look too shiny, but this was definitely the most skin he'd ever shown in his life (aside from when he'd gone swimming.)

Rinoa seemed to think she had been merciful in letting him continue to wear boxers, but the ones she bought for him were so short and restricting that they might as well have been women's underwear. And the short black denim skirt that had been forced onto him, with a dark blue sleeveless turtleneck-type top, made him feel almost naked.

"Why do I have to wear such a short skirt? And what's with this shirt?"

"Well, you do have a thin frame, and I think you should show off your nice body while you can," she said thoughtfully. "Besides, you have really pretty legs and shoulders. Your hips are kind of small, but this skirt'll take care of that."

She gave a reassuring pat to his hip and he flinched.

"Don't tell me any more. I don't want to know," he groaned, careful not to let his hands ruin his makeup again.

Rinoa chuckled and kissed his cheek, pulling him up.

"You're the best, Squall," she smiled brightly up at him. "Now let's get to school. Your shoes are over there."

He glanced at the direction she indicated and groaned. What the heck were those, and weren't they illegal in some nations?

"What are those? They look painful," he said.

"They're flip-flops, and they're not painful," Rinoa sighed, exasperated. "Just try them on. See, I'm wearing some too!" She wriggled her toes as Squall glanced at her feet, still suspicious.

He slipped them onto his feet and cringed. No arch support or anything. He bet if he stepped on an ant, he could feel it through the sole of these terribly uncomfortable pieces of garbage.

"They are painful," he said, glaring at her. She suddenly stopped her mouth and was staring at him with wide eyes.

"What?" he asked, glancing down to make sure nothing was...showing.

"Nothing, it's just..." Rinoa smiled again. "I guess I didn't realize how pretty you look now! Gosh, if I didn't know who you really are, I'd be totally jealous of you!"

"...You don't have to lie to make me feel better. I already feel like shit over this," he told her flatly. She giggled and shook her head.

"I'm not lying! You definitely won't be bullied now, but I'm just worried someone will try to rape you! You're hot enough to turn me lesbian, Squall!" Before he could reply, she skipped out the door. "Now, let's go!"

Squall only stared after her, shifting his weight on poorly sheltered feet. There really was nothing he could say to that, now, was there?


	3. So He Likes Blondes

Ah-hem. I'd like to apologize for the delayed chapter, the reason this took so long is that I have been diligently working on a rather long one-shot, and, I was informed about an hour prior to the trip that I was going Toronto for a few days. At least I had all that time to work on my stories! So, even though I didn't have my trusty reference document for this ficcy, I did work on it anyway.

**To my reviewers:** I was surprised at the comments on how my HS AU is "different" from the other ones...and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for making me feel so special! ;-; I LOVE YOU ALL:hugs you all: I'm not making Squall a mean-faced, cold-hearted bastard! Nor am I making Rinoa a bitch! And I know you all love me for it! ;) Reviewssss...n.n

(Unfortunately, I did generate for this fic the classical Pervine, a.k.a. Pervy Irvy; Irvine the horny cowboy of doom! I just couldn't stop myself, because he just fits that role so perfectly. xD)

ROFL O.O Wtf is with this wonking long chapter! I just don't want to have this story be like, 50 chapters long, and if I keep doing these silly less-than-2000-words chapters, I'll never ever finish this. X.o So this chapter is like...over 5000...sorry, I just write a whole lot. And I was so bored in the car! xD I hope the longness is a good thing for you guys, and not a bad thing! O.O

* * *

_It does notreally matter what these affectionate people do-- so long as they don't do it in the streets and frighen the horses!_

-Mrs. Patrick Campbell

**

* * *

**

**Dancing in Drag**

**Chapter 3: So He Likes Blondes**

"People are staring at me..."

Smiling, brown eyes shifted to glance back as Rinoa tossed her dark hair.

"So?" She asked, "Don't they always?"

She bounced on airily as she rounded the street corner and led her reluctant step-brother up near the crowded plaza-type centre before the odd-shaped high school. Squall's eyebrows fell down in a dismayed frown.

"Not like_ this_," he hissed, desperately trying not to meet a single of the many ogling stares that were upon him. Rinoa giggled and turned to link her elbow with Squall's, winking cutely.

"Then let's stick together. Guys would never attack cute girls in a pack," she said, obviously taking a sadistic pleasure from the other reluctant brunette's unfortunate situation.

He stumbled a bit, set back by the unconventional sandals on his feet. He walked with a strange, uncomfortable awkwardness and his hands kept flying back to feel his bum in the eternal fear that the skirt was riding up. Rinoa eventually started slapping his hands away.

"Squall!" She chided, "Your skirt is fine! You're going to look like a freak if you keep doing that in front of people!"

He shot her a sharp glare.

"I don't _look_ like a freak," he said, "I _am_ one."

Rinoa sighed loudly and unlinked her arm from her step-brother, walking ahead of him briskly.

"Just figure it out and take it easy," she said dismissively, picking herself up in a cute jog and disappearing into the mass of students with a last solemn glance back at Squall. Silver flickered over his confused blue eyes as he watched her go.

He was lost in a cacophonous mess of short-skirted girls squealing to their friends about being back, and thuggish, dumb-looking jocks having amicable beat-downs with their old pals. Suddenly, Squall felt very alone. At least at other schools, he could have always counted on a welcoming party consisting of school bullies, freshened anew from summer vacation and overflowing with bloodlust. Here, he just felt ignored, which was almost worse than handsome fists pummeling him to the ground at first chance.

"AY THERE! WATCH OUT!"

Before he could turn and see what was happening, Squall was thrown down with blinding force. He heard low shouts as his brain regained the ability to process requests, and sat up almost in a panic. Thankfully, the denim of his skirt wasn't very flighty and hadn't seemed to have flipped.

As he tried sitting up, he felt something restricting him: a body, fallen sideways across him. He glanced down, slightly frightened of being so close to anyone in his outfit.

"Hey...are you okay? Can you, uh...get up..." Squall tried to mimic feminine speech. His voice was too soft to be heard in the laughter and shouting circling the two of them. What had been so funny about that?

The blonde young man who had fallen groaned a bit and pushed himself up, deep blue eyes connecting with Squall's immediately. Suddenly the boy looked a bit scared and fell back, apologizing profusely.

"I-I'm sorry miss, I'm really sorry, please forgive..."

"It's...alright..." Squall said slowly, slightly taken aback by the abundant amount of fear evident in the other boy's actions. He carefully stood up, unable to help his hands from flying back quickly to hold the ever-faithful skirt in place.

Raising an eyebrow, he offered his hand down to the other in attempt to calm him down. This seemed to only confuse the blonde, but he tentatively accepted the offer, clutching it in his warm hand, one slightly bigger than Squall's. The brunette bent forward slightly to strengthen his force in attempt to pull the young man up.

_SMACK_

Startled, he immediately dropped the poor blonde's hand and the boy fell back again. Squall's cheeks flamed with burning redness and he spun around with a sharp glare, hands held over his victimized ass. The culprit let out a low whistle.

"Well, don't that beat all! The honey's even got a face to go with that ass!"

Stormy silver-blue eyes widened slightly, flickering indignantly. How dare this low-life moron defile him like that! The tall, auburn-haired and pale-blue-eyed cowboy stepped a bit closer and gave Squall a smug smile, not caring to hide how his eyes traveled quickly from the brunette's face to lower places.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed at the contented cowboy, carrying a sharp undertone but speaking voice still held back. The man frowned slightly, eyeing the scar between Squall's eyes and running his thumb gently along it.

"Looks like this sweet one's a little kinky," the cowboy remarked with a cryptic smile.

Gritting his teeth, Squall threw his fist out at the cheeky man, realizing penitently that over the summer, his already unimpressive strength had been moisturized and fruit-scrubbed to a near comatose weakness. As he had expected, a well-formed hand flew up to catch his fist effortlessly. Amused crystal-blue eyes blinked up to stare into his.

"Y'all don't mean to tell me you would actually offer this lovely hand to that chicken?" He drawled, and Squall pulled his hand fiercely away, remembering the blonde and turning carefully to see the young man staring up at them in bewilderment.

Partly to make up for dropping the clumsy blonde, and partly to spite the cocky cowboy standing behind him, Squall held out his hand again, careful to crouch this time instead of offering his rear end up for abuse again.

The boy looked totally perplexed at this kind act, like he had never been sympathized with before. Part of that held a familiarity to Squall.

"Here," he spoke, voice mellow, pulling the blonde boy up with a short tug.

Squall noticed right then that the blonde's boyishly handsome face was marked by a strange, outlandish crest that ran up its left side. Slightly uncomfortable, Squall gently pulled his hand away from where the boy's still had it in warm grip. The crested blonde blushed and apologized quietly.

The shy but obviously energetic young man seemed to be having an inner struggle. Squall watched with a blank look on his face until an irritated cowboy cleared his throat from behind. The brunette turned around with a warning look.

"Come on, princess," the cowboy drawled, "you don't want to waste your time with that little wuss. You're new here, ain't ya? Why don't you let me and my friend show you around?"

Friend? Squall hadn't noticed anyone else. Silvered blue eyes flickered to the side, and fell upon a slightly taller blonde behind the auburn-haired young man.

He had a roguishly handsome face with harsh, masculine lines. Short blonde hair was gelled back, and narrowed eyes of a coma-inducing jade green glanced down across his sharp angled nose at Squall. He had the kind of expression that Squall had grown to dislike: a quiet but confident smirk that said, "I don't even need to open my mouth to seduce you."

Squall narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the tall, handsome blonde, trying to give across the message that he was unimpressed.

"No," he said sharply. The cowboy stepped closer.

"Did y'all just turn down my offer?" he seemed to ask in complete perplexity, then glancing back at his green-eyed friend, "Tell me she didn't just turn down my offer," he said to his friend.

The blonde only continued to watch Squall with his half-amused stare.

Realizing that girls were gathering around the cowboy and his friend at an alarming rate, Squall saw this as his best chance to get away.

"H-Hey! Hold up, will ya!"

But the auburn-haired young man was only able to watch as his unflirty, short-haired victim sprinted away, almost comically, on slim, well-toned legs and shoes obviously not made for running. "Green-eyes" only stood and let his amused gaze trail Squall until he and his friend were buried under squealing girls.

His homeroom was undecorated, unembellished, and almost...meditative. The desks, arranged evenly, were made for two people, unattached to the chairs. One wall was a long, empty whiteboard, one was a long, empty corkboard, the other was a long, empty row of shelves, and the last one, with the door hidden in the corner, was just long and empty.

He could certainly grow to like the environment. It was the teacher he was getting worried about. She wasn't anywhere to be seen. But then again, he reminded himself, it was still two minutes until homeroom. Walking slowly and minding his outfit carefully (trying not to check his ass again and just content to holding the skirt down at the sides,) Squall pulled out a blue chair and occupied an empty table, careful to fold the denim under his bum before he sat.

His eyes felt heavy from the lining job that Rinoa had done, and he still felt unbelievably, incredibly awkward. But he tried to look natural anyway, propping his elbows up on the table and leaning his chin on his hands with lowered, bored-looking eyes.

However, his legs kept crossing and uncrossing themselves at his calves without his permission, a nervous habit that seemed to have come from having his skin for view in public for the first time like this. His feet also kept slipping in and out of the torture sandals, which were, to his horror, actually starting to become tolerable.

"Ummm...can I sit here?"

Startled awake from his musings, the brunette's head spun toward the speaker a little too quickly. Well-conditioned strands of brown hair tumbled down from the shocked jump he had accidentally put them to, and he shook them away, blinking. It was the crested blonde from earlier.

"Go ahead," he said, still feeling a little shied away by being so close to someone other than Rinoa in his "state," and turned his head away on his propped up hands to stare at a long empty wall. There was silence and he wondered if the young man had changed his mind, but then he heard the obnoxious pull of the metal chair against the ground as the blonde sat.

The deep blue eyes glanced at and away from the back of his head, until he turned his head back to stare forward and the boy was in his peripheral view, not daring to look at him.

"So, um...you're new here, right?"

"Yeah," he admitted with tired sigh that revealed to him just how much he didn't want to be at school.

"Oh...well, if you shouldn't have any problem finding friends here...at least, people who would talk to you." The blonde let out a short, fake laugh. "I mean, I hope you don't mind my saying, but you're really pretty. You probably get that a lot though, huh?"

Squall blinked and let his slightly confused glance fall on the blonde beside him, catching himself quickly and looking away again. So Rinoa hadn't been lying to him...?

"I...I don't really know," he answered lamely. The blonde gave him a bit of a dumb stare.

"That cowboy guy you were talking to was Irvine Kinneas. It's not unusual for a girl to be noticed by Irvine, but for him to be that persistent with you is like..." his eyes widened in emphasis, "...wow. Because if you don't hang all over him from the start, he'll just go off to another slut. Not that you're a slut," he added, quickly looking away.

Squall watched him silently.

"A-Anyway, I think you should stay away from those lady-killers," he continued, "they're both a couple of jerks." He then glanced at Squall nervously again. "Unless you like them, I mean, which is fine, too..."

Squall blinked amused silver-blue eyes at the blonde. He certainly wasn't the most shiningly self-confident young man he had ever met. He figured this was the kid that got teased often, he was so unsure of himself.

"Who was the other one?" he asked after a moment. Confused deep blue eyes caught his own and glanced away again.

"Uhh...who?" he mumbled.

"Kinneas' friend," Squall elaborated, and the boy didn't look back at him.

"Seifer Almasy..." he said it slowly and tentatively. Dark brown eyebrows rose delicately and he turned his head, trying to catch the look on the crested boy's face. He couldn't.

"Anything I should know about him?" he asked with a puff of breath to blow hair out of his face, and the blonde sighed.

"N-no. I mean...he's usually pretty mellow..."

Squall's face almost brightened at this. This meant he wouldn't have to deal with him.

"...but, he screws around with chicks a lot, too, 'cause they just _love_ him," he added bitterly. "If you don't like him, then you probably shouldn't worry, I mean, he's not the type that ever chases anyone. Everyone just...goes to him. Kind of annoys me, actually. Like, how can anyone feel that entitled to everything? I can't even remember the last time a girl didn't want him. Maybe that's why he never goes after anyone..."

This meant Squall _did_ have to deal with him? He blinked. What exactly did it mean? Did it even mean anything? Squall rubbed his temple firmly to stop himself from thinking about it. It only proved to be giving him a headache.

He shifted his shoulders uncomfortably and tugged the falling bra strap back up on his shoulder. He sighed soundlessly, wondering how any girl could stand the contraptions. It was already really uncomfortable.

"Oh, man, I'm sorry. I'm probably talking too much..." the blonde laughed nervously, eyeing Squall out of the corner of his eye. The brunette scratched the back of the hand that Irvine had grabbed without welcome, moisturized into incredible softness by Rinoa.

To be honest, it was kind of scary to him just how feminine his hands (and everything else about him) had started to look.

"Um, no, it's fine," Squall said quietly, crossing his calves again. "I asked you to."

The blonde smiled brightly just as the bell rang. Squall glanced at the door as it turned open slowly, and their homeroom teacher seemed to glide through the doorway. She wore a long, slinky black dress and her raven black hair was tied up tightly. Piercing yellow-gold eyes regarded the classroom carefully and her snow-pale skin was accented by fluorescent lighting. Moving like a ghost, she slinked over to her desk and took a seat.

"Welcome to my classroom," she spoke with a whimsical little smile, her voice pouring smoothly like liquid silk. "Some of you may know me, but for those whom I have not had the pleasure of acquainting, I am Edea. No title or formal address is required, as I am expecting to see from young adults the respect that does not require a title for validation."

She picked up a stack of papers and evened them out as some frantic students shuffled through the doorway inconspicuously. Yellow eyes sharpened in their direction, not missing a single one of them. Her darkly-made-up lips stiffened.

"All of you are tardy," she said, no sympathy evident in her voice. "I will suggest to you now, that you not repeat that behavior in the future. I will not be lenient."

The scared students took their seats meekly, quickly sharing looks that said, "eek."

After a while, Edea started checking her papers and class lists, allowing her students the time to re-acquaint themselves and talk-_quietly._

"Hey..." the blonde looked at Squall again when it was safe to make quiet conversation, and the brunette glanced sideways at him.

"Hmm" he made a little acknowledging noise.

"I'm not bothering you, am I?" the nervous young man asked quickly.

"Nope," Squall said without looking at the blonde, holding back the urge to say that, though his speaking wasn't, the nervous behavior _was _bothering him.

"Alright...well, it's nice to meet you, miss...I'm Zell Dincht." He blinked expectantly.

"...I've never met a 'Zell' before," he said it half to himself.

"You don't like it, huh?" The blonde looked almost disheartened. Squall frowned.

"No, I was just saying it's different. Nice name," he added lamely, trying to make the kid feel better. He didn't really have an opinion on it.

"Oh, um...well, uh...thanks for putting up with me, I guess. I just don't have a lot of friends, so it's cool for such a pretty girl to listen to me talk without knocking my lights out at some point." He laughed shortly, "I can't even remember the last time this has happened. Maybe it never has."

Squall raised a dark eyebrow and silver-blue eyes flickered to the side at Zell.

"Don't worry about it," he mumbled, scratching the base of his neck where an uncomfortable itch had come from the turtleneck collar.

"So...what's your name?"

The brunette blinked out of his half-unwary state again and leaned back in his chair.

"Squall," he said quietly. Zell gave him a bit of a dumb look.

"So we're even," the blonde said with a boyish laugh, "I don't think I've ever met a 'Squall' before. Say, is that it? You don't have a last name?" He smiled jokingly.

Squall glanced sharply away with a dark frown.

"No."

Zell's smile fell instantly, and he decided it would be best to let it go. The bell rang then, and Edea stood up as students began shuffling out of their seats.

"Remember there are five minutes in between classes. Now, everybody...welcome back to Garden High, and good luck to all of you." With a small, dismissive smile, she opened the door and let her students out. Squall was nearly the last to leave the room, Zell close behind.

"Hey Squall, over here! Your locker's gotta be close to your homeroom. What's your number?"

With a sigh and a hand at his side, keeping his skirt in check, Squall went as best as he could after the chipper blonde. He looked down at his schedule.

"901," he read, and Zell whooped.

"Great! Right next to me! Well um...you have your locker com, don't you? You need help?"

Squall shot a glare at the blonde, who recoiled slightly.

"I am...fine." He forced out, trying not to yell. Honestly, Zell was nice and he didn't mind him, but the blonde was starting to show signs of being a little overbearing.

"Oh-okay." Zell turned to work on his own locker, 902.

Squall managed to open his on the first try, and he pushed his bag in it, one that held his very last pair of pants, his black dance pants that Rinoa had been forced to let him keep. He glanced to the side and saw that Zell was having no such luck, wrestling with his locker.

"I just don't get it!" he growled, frustrated, as he kicked the locker. I know I got the combination right! I have it right here!"

Closing his own locker with an inquisitive glance toward the one beside him, Squall walked over to Zell's other side and inspected the locker with a click of his tongue.

"It's not the combination," he said quietly, and Zell stopped working up the handle. "Look, Zell...it's glue."

There was a layer of super-glue in the locker's crevice, and Squall was almost ashamed to admit that this had actually happened to him before. Zell whimpered quietly, crouching down, and stared so close that his eye was about to get stuck in there as well. He bent down and tried tugging the locker at the corner.

Squall sighed soundlessly and pulled out an old library card, leaning over Zell to stare into the crevice as well. With careful precision, he started to chisel out a path through the glue, at least managing to separate the door from the locker wall.

"Whoa...sweet!" Zell stared at his salvaged locker in amazement and spun around to beam up at the brunette.

He didn't realize that his face would turn right into Squall's chest.

Startled again, Squall yelped and forcefully shoved the blonde off, arms crossing protectively over his "falsies." Silver flickered over blue eyes in disdain and Squall turned his face away, heart still hammering from shock, wondering frantically if his cover was already blown.

Zell looked positively mortified.

"Wa-Wait! Squall! I-I didn't mean to! Hold on, I'm sorry! Don't go!"

Calmed down a little, Squall took a deep breath and dropped his arms from his chest, glaring at the floor before looking at Zell. He hadn't seemed to have noticed anything unusual.

"Its...o-okay," he said, swallowing a dry spot in his throat that had lumped up from shock, "Its fine, just...be careful from now on...that kind of stuff makes me nervous..."

'_Understatement of the century_,' Squall sighed in his mind.

Still staring at him with round blue eyes, Zell stood up shakily and nodded.

"I've...I've never met anyone like you," he mumbled as he put his stuff in his locker, "how can you be so nice? You obviously don't let guys like Irvine give you any nonsense...I guess that means you can tell I'm not lusting after you or anything...I mean, not that you're not pretty enough to be lusting after—well, I-I-uh...I mean, you're pretty enough, but I'm not after you...not that I'm saying you're not good enough, you know...I just meant...um...I'm not...going to...you know. Uh...?"

Zell looked pretty well confused with himself, and Squall leaned his back on his own locker and glanced sideways at the blonde, an almost invisible smile on his lips.

"I think I understand," the brunette said quietly, and Zell blushed slightly and nodded, closing his locker with a little fiddling.

"Well, uh...then, do you want me to walk you to class?"

This behavior was completely new to Squall. Being a guy for your whole life can make the first day of being in a woman's position certainly interesting. He had never been offered a "walk to class" before, only guy friends that would just kind of...appear at his side and platonically be his crutch until he figured out the building's arrangement on his own. But here he was, being offered a "walk to class."

It made him wonder if this was why scientists seemed to have found women as the more socially dependent sex; it was a lot easier to be the dependent sex when there seemed to be more to be able to depend on. Admittedly, though he knew he shouldn't have it, it was a "warm and fuzzy" feeling in his gut. A walk to class...it was endearing.

"...No."

Oh, it was certainly a warm and fuzzy feeling, but he wasn't about to morph into a sweet, dependent girl just like that. No, he was certain that some women were very much independent, and he privately felt it necessary to keep some aspect of his already feeble masculinity.

Zell just stared after him and the ghost of his little smile, bewildered. He scratched his head.

"That was definitely one of the weirder things to happen to me lately," he mumbled, followed by a little smile and a boyish blush. "Nobody that pretty has ever been so nice to me. Damn, I just hope being nice to me won't make other people ignore her. Kinda quiet, but I think she's got a good heart in there..." His deep blue eyes widened comically as he considered what he had just said.

He stared at his locker before slamming his head against it with a silly laugh, ignoring dubious stares of passer-bys. "I was sniffing glue again, wasn't I?" he joked to himself.

'_I told her I wasn't lusting, so I'll stay true to that.'_

"Well! I personally ain't ever seen a thing like it! Little sugar 'n spice over there was supposed to be turned off by that glued locker, but she helped the chicken out and he even got a face full of it! She didn't even yell or nothin'! So what's wrong with _me_?"

Irvine and Seifer stood a little way away from Zell and Squall, watching them.

"She turned _me_ down! How could she turn down this handsome mug?" Genuinely perplexed blue eyes searched Seifer's for answers, since he could not supply his own.

Seifer raised a dark eyebrow at his fretting companion and then dropped it with a tiny smirk.

"She must be into blondes," he explained simply, running a lazy hand over his jaw with a hidden smirk. Irvine shot him a flickering crystal blue glare.

"Face it, man, that feisty sweetheart ain't fallin' for your 'passive charm' or whatever the hell you call it. I know her kind, they're big on the run-and-chase, and when you finally catch 'em, they like it nice an' rough." Irvine's blue eyes fogged up, and with a very not amused stare, Seifer hit him lightly behind the head.

"Yeah, right," the blonde's voice turned in tone as he took on a sneer. "Just watch and wait, cowboy. She'll be throwing herself into my arms by the end of the week."

Something sparked in crystalline blue eyes as thin lips curled up in a smirk.

"Did I smell a challenge on your breath?" he asked.

"Maybe you did," Seifer answered, smirking back. Challenging blue met taunting jade-green.

"One week," Irvine breathed, eyes flashing in excitement. "Whoever wins her over-"

"Gets the girl," Seifer cut in, and disappointment was evident on the auburn-haired cowboy's face.

"Y'all are no fun," he frowned. "But have it your way. Whoever wins her over, gets to keep her. Tell me, Al, won't this one look lovely in my collection?"

Seifer frowned back, ignoring the boorish butchering of his last name.

"You're sick. And she does have a name, you know."

"Well, you ain't any better," Irvine rebutted in defense, "And I haven't given her the pleasure of knowing it yet."

"Maybe if you had been listening to them when they came out of homeroom instead of ogling her ass, you'd know it." His smirk grew, and he held up one hand with one finger out, and the other hand with fingers curved into an "O" shape.

"Almasy: 1; Kinneas: 0."

Smirking candy-green eyes held the gaze of irritated crystal blue, and slowly the hallways started to empty out.

Suddenly, amazingly strong hands clutched around both of their necks and forcefully shoved their backs against the lockers, holding them against the clanging metal.

Seifer forced a smile through the choking grip and managed to open an eye at the attacker.

"H-Hey, it's been a while, Fu...ya look as sharp as ever..."

An unimpressed, cold stare was sent at him as the fiercely strong young woman tossed her silver hair out of her one good eye.

"Idiot," She said, harsh as ever, "Both of you, to class now. I won't cover for you imbeciles this year."

She dropped them and the two young men touched hands to their abused necks as their ever-cold, silver-haired friend marched away.

"Same old Fujin," Seifer sighed with a smirk as he rubbed feeling back into his neck. Irvine blinked hazy blue eyes.

"Yeah, scary chick's still way too strong," he remarked, "but damn, if those hips ain't gotten curvier!" He let out a low whistle, and the taller blonde shook his head, hitting his friend's head a little harder and knocking the cowboy hat low on his face before walking off.

"You're sick, Kinneas."

Pale blue eyes just flickered in the light of a challenge, smiling and plotting as he watched his green-eyed friend step further and further away.

"I might be sick," he mumbled to himself with a bit of a crazed smile, "But at least I know how to get a sweetheart. About Miss sugar 'n spice, well, good luck even getting her to _look_ at you."

-o-0-o-

o.0

Squall is Miss Sugar 'n Spice? xD Oh my.

YES, SEIFER HAS DARK EYEBROWS! xD To those who have ever written Sei-Sei with blonde eyebrows, you are terribly mistaken! Just look at every official shot of him in existence, and then try to argue with me! He has nearly black eyebrows! Dark brown, at least! OH-HO:has an eyebrow complex: x.o

Review and you'll get your next chapter soon. And, like, I'll give you, um...:holds up gum: (_Hey! It's Canadian!)_ :holds up CANADIAN gum:...Canadian gum! Believe me, everything is a lot sweeter in Canada, from their soda to their gum! Even their Diet Pepsi has more calories than ours! One more calorie, to be exact! And it tastes one calorie GOODER, too! Um, but, be warned, because I think their gum is _two _calories sweeter than ours.

Ahh, anyway...Canadian or not, if you review my story, you're 374 whopping calories sweeter than a normal reader! That's like, a whole meal! I promise not to eat you:3 xD

Uhh...byebye! Tell me what you think of my characters! o.0 Just hope you don't hate my story now! x.o


	4. So He Is Untitled

To my reviewers: xD You're all so great! Reading your reviews is the ultimate happiness. :starry eyes: Ah-hem. I couldn't help but smile at all the comments about how this looks like a Squall/Zell story. Don't be fooled! Rest assured, my dears, this is a Seifer/Squall fic. If it were S/Z, at this point, that would just be too obvious. I mean, it's pretty easy to tell there's going to be some at least, one sided Zell x Squall, but puh-lease...I am in no way a Zell-shipper. But I do like him a bunch, and I'm glad you all think Zell is so cute! o.0 (Also, I apologize to the one who didn't like Irvine's character...:bows:)

Special thanks to **Angels-Obsession** for being the only reviewer to review on all three previous posts...hope you come back again:offers you homage:

Random, Badly-Timed Disclaimer: All of the characters used by name in this story are pwn'd by Squaresoft O.O

Side notes: No, Coach DoomTrain is _not_ a train. So keep those images out of your heads...xD And later you'll meet band director Mr. Ethan Levi and Drama teacher Mrs. Cara Buncle...well, if I told you that I'm not using any true OCs for my teachers, would you look closer and see my evil? (puns R fun.)

Also! My head is just about exploding from me trying to figure out Squall and Rinoa's family situation! xD I should have organized this before I started writing! D: Buuuut...I think I'm figuring it out. Just, forgive me for kind of really, really screwing with FF8's original story in that respect. But, you see, I had to change things around a bit. Just remember, this is a fanfic, so please don't give me a hard time about it...n.n;

_

* * *

_

_And am I to blame if that's the way things are?_

-Machiavelli

* * *

**Dancing In Drag**

**Chapter 4: So He Is Untitled**

A "cool beauty" would have been the best way to describe her. Exactly 6 feet tall, her pale skin and slender frame moved across the floor smoothly, as if her feet were coated with ice. Mesmerizing eyes of all shades of blue looked as if a single glance could freeze anything over in less than a second. Impossibly long hair, cerulean blue, fell all the way to graze the floor. She wore chic, city-esque clothes, a light blue feminine suit-top and a darker blue skirt that fell a little over her knees. Even her lips, which parted to speak with even pleasantly cold breath, were painted in a dark, imposing shade of blue.

Squall couldn't help but stare at his Social Studies teacher. Everything about her and her room was so white and blue that he was starting to feel like he was drowning, or about to fall into a deep depression. Didn't her whole environment make her feel sad?

"You're the new one?" Icy cold eyes froze Squall in place as long, slender, cool hands touched his bare shoulder. He tried not to flinch. She had a strong French accent, but it wasn't obnoxious. If anything, it was seductive.

"Yes."

Dark blue lips curled up in a whimsical smile as she pulled her cold touch away from Squall.

"Please, call me Madame Shiva."

The taciturn brunette nodded slowly and went to take his seat. This classroom had single seats, and he found one that was to his liking in the last row, in the last column. Pulling out paper and a pen (taking extra care to make sure it wasn't a blue one,) Squall leaned forward and pressed his forehead against crossed hands, closing his eyes for a moment.

Soon the classroom started filling up and the bell rang. Squall opened his ears, not caring to do the same with his eyes, and listened to a cool-breathed "Back-to-school" monologue commence.

He blinked his eyes open, forehead still against his hands and face still facing downward. The cool voice was starting to work its freezing magic on his brain, and he was only brought back when he felt the eraser end of a pencil prod his side. He turned his gaze sideways.

"Hey," was whispered at him quietly, and Squall's lips turned downward in a dismayed frown. Cowboy hat tipped up and amused, crystal blue eyes studied him.

Squall only turned his head away, frantically trying to bring his mind back to the monologue (though it mattered not to him whether he got any of it, honestly, he was just trying to be too busy to be bothered by the cowboy.)

"C'mon sweetheart. You know you'd rather be talking to me than listening to that hag, so go ahead and indulge yourself."

Thin lips curled upward in a tight smirk and Squall's gaze angled back at him with a sharp glare, silver flickering over blue like sparks of electric ice. Squall tightened his own lips in a stiff line and refused to speak to the auburn-haired young man. He got, then, another poke in the side.

"Come on, honey, smile for Irvy?"

Squall huffed and turned his gaze away again. This could definitely count as harassment.

Men, Squall thought to himself, they can be so ignorant. He didn't want to look at this imbecile, let alone _smile_ for him!

Suddenly, Irvine was leaning almost out of his seat and was way too close. He leaned his mouth close to Squall's ear with a smirk.

"If you don't show some lovin', we might just have to tell everybody about your little secret..."

Turbulent silver-blue eyes flashed to glance at the cowboy, flashing like an ice storm. Turning his gaze to stare ahead, frowning fiercely with uncertainty evident on his face, Squall swallowed the shocked dry spot that had lumped up again and refused to look back. Instead, he unclenched his teeth to make his speech intelligible.

"What...secret..." He almost growled, and Irvine smiled innocently.

"You know what I'm talking about..." He raised an auburn eyebrow and leaned back from Squall's ear to watch his face.

"No...I don't..."

"Oh, but you do," he said, careful to keep his voice low. Squall glanced back at him carefully and dubiously, crossing his arms across his chest.

"I don't...go ahead and tell me."

The foggy-blue-eyed cowboy frowned and looked pensive for a moment.

"Honey, I'm not sure if I should say something like that in public..."

Squall massaged his face and his calves crossed and uncrossed themselves again. He turned his gaze back at the thoughtful cowboy beside him.

"You don't know any secret."

Auburn eyebrows rose in amusement. "O'course I do."

"No, you don't. You can't say because you don't know."

"Sweetheart, you and I both know that this is too dark a secret to be said aloud," he tried lamely. Squall's eyes flickered in annoyance as he set his hard stare upon the other.

"Try me."

Irvine frowned again and stared back into vexed angel-eyes.

"Listen," he started, trying to make another excuse, but Squall had already figured out the trick. The brunette was about to tell him to lay off when, suddenly, a cold wind seemed to hit them both.

"Please, excuse! Monsieur Kinneas! Miss Loire! Is there a problem?"

Irvine quickly slunk back into his chair and Squall looked away, mumbling. The blue ice queen folded her arms and raised an eyebrow at the two before continuing her lesson. Squall's legs crossed again. Of course, his auburn-haired nuisance wasn't about to leave him alone for more than a minute.

"Loire...hmm..."

Squall's expression darkened exceptionally and he drummed his fingers in his lap. Refusing to embarrass himself again, the brunette kept his hardened stare on his teacher instead of giving Irvine the glare that he direly wished to.

"Mighty lovely name, it is," Irvine continued, not in the least put off by Squall's ignoring him. "I wonder what name goes before it."

The smaller brunette's scowling lips twitched as he restrained himself from hissing back a smart comment. His frown got even harder, and he drummed his fingers on his lap a little faster.

"You're not going to tell me, are you..." the persistent cowboy feigned a rather repulsive pout. "Well, lovely, I guess I'll just have to call you sugar 'n spice...unless Loire-honey is good for you."

Drumming fingers stopped and clenched into a fist as Squall shot him a sharp glare, and he forced himself to unhinge his stiffened jaw.

"Loire is _not_ my name."

Crystal-blue eyes widened in interest. "Well, sugar, I don't know any but your last name," he said, amused.

"It's _not_ my last name."

Irvine lifted his chin to stare down with a crooked grin, folding his arms across his chest and leaning back in his chair.

"If you say so, sweetheart. What do you like to be called?"

Squall sneered, not looking back at the auburn-haired young man.

"Nothing. Leave me the hell alone."

Irvine flinched as if he had been hit. "Ouch, darling, that burned," he drawled. The angel-eyed brunette shook his head and leaned slightly away from the side that the cowboy occupied. For about five minutes, Squall was left in peace, and he was finally starting to relax a bit. Of course he should have known better.

"Tell me your name..."an annoying little voice, and another poke in Squall's side. The brunette let out a soundless sigh, heaving his chest with a large breath. His un-amused stare, not once focused on his predator, was enough to say that he was not going to say anything to the cowboy.

"Oh, I see..." Eyes of hazy blue narrowed slightly as he spoke, "...you must be the type that only tells her name after sleeping with a fellow...well, my bed is always open for business, darling,"

Squall's hand twitched.

_Don't react to him...that's just what he wants you to do..._

"I can understand if you're a little shy, doll, but you don't need to hide. I mean..." the cowboy took on another cryptic smile and lowered his voice a little, "...there ain't no way you're cherry..."

Then, without warning, Irvine reached out a well-formed hand and set it on Squall's knee. Slowly, he climbed it upward until his fingertips touched the hem of the denim skirt.

The cowboy leaned closer, wearing a devilish smirk.

"Am I making you nervous?" he whispered quietly, playing with the hem of the skirt.

Squall's hand twitched again.

_5...seconds...to the kill..._

"_MONSIEUR KINNEAS!"_

Squall froze, and Irvine jerked back immediately, wearing the classic "deer-in-the-headlights" expression. Frigid, impossibly cold eyes froze icicles through the caught cowboy.

"Already you cause trouble in my classroom! I can not expect any more than this nonsense from you?" A gut-twisting, ice cold glare continued boring into him. "If you can not keep yourself from pestering behaviors then you obviously can not be trusted to sit next to Miss Loire!"

The irate blue woman turned her gaze over her classroom quickly, and then glanced back at Irvine. "Switch seats with Monsieur Seagil." She pointed to a dark-skinned young man in the center of the second row, seated next to a fair-haired, fierce looking young woman with an eye-patch. The teacher then smiled apologetically at the eye-patch girl.

"My apologies, Miss Sefid, but I must request that you keep an eye on your _friend_," she said. The girl only grunted and nodded with a little irritated sigh.

The dark-skinned, lithe-bodied young man picked up his bag, which still retained the pleasant beginning-of-the-school-year lightness. His nearly black eyes seemed to hold a secretive smile as he walked back to take Irvine's seat as the cowboy reluctantly strode to the front of the room. He gave off a bit of an eccentric vibe, but Squall figured anybody was better than Irvine.

As he took his seat, the dark-skinned young man smiled at Squall. Silver-blue eyes studied him quickly and carefully, not seeing any semblance of an ulterior motive. Squall gave him an acknowledging blink before turning his gaze back to watch Madame Shiva and listen to her lesson. Turning to follow suit, the other warm-eyed young man kept the diminutive smile on his face.

Squall was not bothered again for the rest of class.

**-o-0-o-**

"I didn't know Laguna had a daughter."

Silver-blue eyes widened slightly and the brunette turned to stare at the dark-skinned young man as the class was being dismissed. Irvine was being kept after class to have a "talk" with Madame Shiva.

"Who..."

The dark boy smiled warmly and his eyes flickered in the same way, comforting like a warm fireplace during a snowstorm.

"Kiros Seagil the Second," he said, holding out his hand.

Squall didn't take the friendly offer, but watched the young man tentatively instead

"How?" He asked with an uncertain frown, knowing that the boy would understand what he was referring to. The boy smiled again and dropped his hand, seeing that Squall wasn't going to take it, and started walking out of the classroom slowly, with Squall at his side.

"My dad," Kiros explained, "and Laguna, have a lot of business together, and sometimes Laguna and Raine come over to our place for dinner. Actually..." he laughed shortly as they walked out the door, "they're over a lot. I thought you looked a lot like him, but I knew you had to be his daughter when Madame said your last name..."

Squall frowned and looked away. Kiros didn't seem to notice, but they stopped walking for a moment.

"Where's your locker?" Kiros asked, glancing down the hallway.

"Over there..." the brunette mumbled, only paying half attention. Kiros followed him to the nearby locker, where they were nearly bulldozed over by an energetic blonde.

"Squall!" Zell called, and Squall nearly jumped out of his flip-flops (not that it would have mattered, seeing as the tiresome sandals were struggling to stay on his feet anyway.)

"U-um." Squall offered him a lame little smile, still a little shaken, and opened his locker, taking out his English textbook (distributed before the school year.) This, Kiros did notice.

"Oh, you have English? Me too. Let's go together," he said with that same warm smile.

"Oohh! Squall, hey, I have English now, too! I'll walk you."

Zell's pure blue eyes and Kiros' warm, dark brown ones met for a split-second. Squall looked away with an estranged frown.

"I'll be fine..." he mumbled, walking away slowly. Of course, the dark young man and crested blonde followed him anyway. They did have to go in the same direction, after all.

"So...um...Squall? Your name is Squall, right?"

The brunette kept walking as Kiros came up on his right side, Zell on his left.

"Yep," he said lightly.

"Squall Loire," Kiros said mostly to himself. "pretty name. I wonder why Laguna and Raine never brought you to dinner..." Dark eyes fell to stare at Squall inquisitively. "Heck, I wonder why they never even mentioned you..."

Squall gave him a cryptic, kind of scary little smile that said: _I would stop talking if I were you._

"I wonder why," the silver-blue-eyed brunette repeated quietly, dismissing the topic completely. Kiros smiled and looked away, allowing it to be dismissed. Zell watched in utter confusion as Squall wondered off-handedly if Kiros ever frowned. Hell, did he even _not _smile?

There wasn't much room for further discussion, as Squall walked, for the second time, into the English classroom of four long, unfurnished walls.

"Hello, students," Edea's intense yellow eyes greeted the three as they walked into the room. "Please make yourselves comfortable. Class will start in a few minutes."

There were plenty of empty two-person desks open, so Squall just took the seat he had occupied during homeroom. Zell and Kiros just stood there silently, and he wore a tiny smile as he could practically feel them silently arguing over who would sit in the empty seat.

If they only knew he was not "Squall Loire the pretty girl." Then he likely wouldn't have people so eager to be his friend. Men, Squall thought to himself, they can be so shallow.

"SQUALLY!"

Suddenly, Squall was caught from behind by a throttling embrace around his neck, and a young woman's small frame deposited herself in the seat beside him before Zell or Kiros could. Laughing brown eyes watched his shell-shocked expression and her small hand gripped his tightly.

Kiros and Zell watched, completely perplexed. Rinoa noticed this and turned her gaze slightly, offering the two blank-faced young men a tiny, victorious smirk.

"R-Rinoa," Squall breathed, adjusting the now crooked bra, and she turned back to face her step-brother with a bright smile. "Don't...don't _do_ that!"

She giggled and squeezed his hand before letting it go, nodding and spinning in her seat again to glance over at Zell and Kiros, who still hadn't seemed to have gotten the message.

"She's _mine_!" she said, kissing Squall's cheek, "So don't you dare lay a finger on my sweetheart." Rinoa wrapped her arms around his bare shoulders protectively and her dark hair grazed his skin slightly, staring up at the two with a dark, hard frown.

Zell's expression could only be described as incredibly comical. Blue eyes flickered in confusion; wide as saucers as his mouth was opening and closing soundlessly, like a fish out of water. Kiros only watched with a hugely wide grin, mouth twitching as if he was forcing himself not to laugh. Squall's face grew hot and he squirmed out of Rinoa's arms, looking away.

"She doesn't love me anymore!" The dark-haired pixie-child wailed, and suddenly her face snapped into a huge smile at Zell and Kiros. "Just kidding! I'm his sister." She winked.

Life flickered back into Zell's face as he let out a breath. Kiros' perpetual smile actually seemed to die a little.

"Whose sister?" he asked.

Squall and Rinoa blinked, and silvery blue angel eyes looked panicked for a moment.

"_Rinoa!"_ he hissed. She blushed slightly and glanced at him apologetically.

"Um, I meant to say 'her.' _Her_ sister."

There was an awkward silence and Kiros nodded, the same smile creeping up his face again.

"Well, I'd better find a seat. Nice to meet you, Miss and Miss Loire," he said cleverly, walking off to find one of the last empty seats.

Squall and Rinoa shared a glance at his comment.

Zell looked disheartened, but spotted a certain lofty, strong-looking young man sitting by himself.

"Hmm...Well, bye, Squall!" and he ran over to take the seat beside the other boy as class started.

"Dude, I haven't seen you at all today," Zell whispered to his friend with a boyish grin. The well-built, dark-skinned young man grinned back.

"Zell...If Fujin wasn't already sitting over there, I'd have to kick you outta this seat, ya know? I think she likes me, ya know..."

Zell gave him a comically dubious stare.

"Rai...don't tell me you still haven't dropped that weird lingo? And..." blonde eyebrows, short and cut off, fell down in a demure grin, "...you are delusional. Fujin has made it too clear that she's hated you since 9th grade."

Fujin, the silver-haired young woman, was watching them like prey, as they talked during class, and Raijin gave her a little wave and a goofy grin. She glared at him icily and turned away in a huff.

"She's head-over-heels for me, ya know," Raijin said with an elated sigh. Zell rolled his eyes.

"Yeah," the crested blonde replied sarcastically, "I know."

**-o-0-o-**

"MISTER KINNEAS."

Irvine forced himself not to recoil from the booming voice.

"Hi there, coach."

The tall, looming figure blew his whistle and all the young men that were about, doing various activities, gathered around him. Irvine shifted uncomfortably in his knee-length exercise shorts and white t-shirt.

"TARDY ON THE FIRST DAY, YOU ARE. RUN FIVE LAPS AROUND THE GYM, YOU WILL. AND REMOVE THAT HAT, YOU MUST."

Reluctantly parting with his cowboy hat, Irvine feigned his unsuitable pout and set it safely by his things.

"Okay, Coach DoomTrain."

Coach DoomTrain turned to face a tall blonde who had just run in.

"TARDY, YOU ARE AS WELL. RUN LAPS WITH KINNEAS, YOU MUST."

He shrugged as Irvine got a head start on his laps. A lofty, long-legged and strong young man, it wasn't difficult at all, but his even taller, blonde friend caught up to him quickly and jogged at his side.

"Well, mister braggart," Seifer started with a smirk, and Irvine huffed, "how did your class with 'sugar 'n spice' go?"

"Wonderfully," Irvine replied with a scowl, and candy-green eyes glanced at him quickly, narrowing in a little frown.

"Irvine..."

"What?" he asked flatly.

"You didn't do anything stupid, did you?" He gave his friend a dubious frown as they rounded the corner of the gym.

"Course not," the auburn-haired young man replied shortly. Seifer sighed soundlessly.

"...You did."

"I didn't do a thing wrong," Irvine retorted, narrowing crystal-blue eyes. "Cat's in the bag already. You might as well give up."

The lofty blonde's nicely-shaped lips stretched across his face in a huge, wide grin.

"Irvine," he laughed, "what the hell did you do _this_ time?"

"Just shut it, sheriff," Irvine scowled. The blonde's baritone voice entertained a deep laugh and he fell a little behind.

"Oh man, you're rich," the tall blonde laughed. "I guess we know she's not into the direct approach, am I right?" He nudged Irvine in the side, and the cowboy ignored him.

"I bet she didn't even tell you her name," he joked, and when the other didn't reply, his grin fell a little. "Oh."

"Dun' matter. You'll have worse luck."

"You think?" Seifer's breath heaved a little as they finished a third lap, "I don't know. Ice princesses like her usually just take a little manly, laid-back charm. I think I can do it."

"Feh...right." Irvine smirked darkly. "Don't lose sleep over it, cowboy," he assured, "I'll get her. No need for y'all to start making plans."

"Yeah..."

But Seifer's mind was already somewhere else, thinking of this new "ice princess." He wasn't really sure if this was just another competitive thing, to prove his worth against Irvine's. That this gorgeous young woman was so untactful, almost as if she had no experience with being so wanted, was interesting to him. But more than what the cowboy was after; and cheesy as it sounded, he was fascinated by her eyes. That and her ability to so easily _ignore_ him. Sure, it sounded conceited, and it definitely was, but he was honestly good-looking and he knew it. Seifer always welcomed a challenge, and though he said with such conviction that he'd be able to get her, he knew it wouldn't be easy. But he was determined to find out more about her, even if it was already becoming a frivolous obsession.

Sometimes he was silly like that.

**-o-0-o-**

Quistis was, by no means, an emotional woman. She was not easily fazed, and not easily impressed. Most things didn't even catch her interest.

This, however, was something else altogether.

"Ah...?" Thin, well-formed blonde eyebrows rose to the height of her forehead, partly hidden behind the two long tufts of hair out of her bun on either side of her face. Full, pink lips fell slightly open as she stared at her room's newest occupant. "You're...Squall?"

The brunette blinked his gaze down and to the side with a little nod. Quistis watched in amazement, and walked over to stand close to him, lowering her voice.

"You look...you look very...nice." she said, eyebrows still up.

He didn't say anything.

Elsewhere in the dance studio, emerald-green eyes shimmered from the remains of tears and of interest, watching Squall intensely. Hair, styled to flip out at the sides and roll in the back, brown like milk chocolate, held its place stiffly as she turned her head away. Something about this new girl, perhaps the hardened stare, the messy dark brown hairstyle, and the way this new girl held herself or those surreal blue-silver eyes...

Something about it was familiar to her. She could have sworn she had seen this new girl before, when she had gone to school in Trabia. It was a ridiculous, uncanny resemblance to someone she once knew...though the one she knew, she knew very distantly and not well, it would be hard to forget such an enigmatic presence.

"Squall..." she whispered to herself.

The only thing that bothered her was that the Squall she had known...had been a _guy_.

**-o-0-o-**

Note: **This. Is. Not. A. Kiros. X. Squall. Fic. Kiros does not like Squall in that way, Kiros was not flirting with him, and he never, ever, _ever_ will.** Kiros (actually Kiros Jr. This is the real Kiros' son) is just interested in getting to know Laguna's "daughter." Seriously, why the hell would I make this an Everybody x Squall fic? I mean, our antisocial cutie just isn't the one for everybody! That would be unfair. :

GUYS! I am so sorry! I just realized how very little Seifer/Squall interaction is actually happening here. Like, none, period. But you see, I was unfortunate enough to have scheduled Squall's classes with Seifer in the last three classes, and none in the first three, which is what it is so far. There **will** be Squall/Sei-Sei. **I PROMISE**! ;-;

Fujin Sefid and Raijin Siyah. In Farsi, Sefid means white and Siyah means black. Can anybody see a side-romance here? Oh-ho-ho.

ROFL. O.O _COACH DOOMTRAIN! _And he's like_, YODA! _If this bothers anyone, just tell me and I'll edit it to make it more normal. O.o

Review, because...I love you:D If you love me too (or at least my story...) then drop me a line...I'll adore you forever:also offers all her PS memory cards: Oh wait, you don't want those...I have really sucky save files...xD


	5. So He Is In the Closet

SRY About the late update:feels bad: Love you guys...hope you come back to review! T.T

Selphie's kind of OOC, I guess. Rest assured, I did that completely on purpose. I never found the hyper, chipper Selphie characterization to be very interesting, honestly: rather than the traditional definable "Cute, Younger Girl," I made her the "Smart Aleck." So yeah, I guess if you don't like my Selph then you can either suck it up or beat it...

Also, if I'm being too vague, about my Zephyr Roth, just um...well, I can't believe I'd have to actually point this out, but in case you didn't get it, try to imagine him too look like Sepiroth. Just more nice and less brooding and...way hornier. X.x And his hair is only to his shoulders. (Think KH Riku's hair with less layering work.)

Also...why have I written so many teachers without their sanity? XD You'll see when Squall gets to Band...

**(Is this chapter kind of bad? I don't like the ending. I might change it later. Let me know.)**

* * *

"_Below I know I love her but act like I don't want her. Could be an organ donor, the way I'd give up my heart but never know, because shit, I'd never tell her!"_

–Andre "3000" Benjamin

* * *

**Dancing In Drag**

**Chapter 5: So He's In the Closet**

"No, no, you're not understanding, Squall," Quistis wore a pink leotard under black silk harem pants, but despite her casual outfit, she stood with a strong professional aura around her that often made her students a little afraid to approach her. She tapped her finger against her full lips, frowning down absently, deep in thought. Squall fidgeted a bit.

"Did I do it again?" he asked, slightly irked at himself. Quistis looked up at him.

"You tried to fix it, at least," she explained, "but still; I really can't express how sharp this dance has to be. This particular modern dance has an odd rhythm, and your movement must be punctual to a fault. At least try to lose your reservations when dancing for this song," she added hopefully, glancing into vexed silver-blue eyes.

Squall sighed soundlessly and looked down at his bare feet for a moment, mulling over ways to attempt to be "punctual to a fault." He hadn't had much experience with modern dances and peculiar rhythms like this before; he had more practice in classic, fluid dance.

And he had attended a Tango workshop. One time. Rinoa had never let him live it down.

Since then, he had stuck to his usual type of dance and was reluctant to move out of his comfort zone. Of course he should have expected the comfort zone to be broken immediately in an advanced dance class.

Quistis' lips quirked up in a small smile as she set her gaze on the awkward young man.

"Don't take it the wrong way," she said, quieter, "it's already very good progress for a first day. Even for an Advanced student. Most of the other girls in here couldn't get this far in one day."

She stopped herself before she could say any more, and abruptly walked away, wondering why she had felt obligated to say that. She hardly ever dished out compliments for anyone, and just like that, she had started talking his ear off with sweet praise. She sighed and touched a finger to her temple, venturing to critique some of the other dancers.

Squall only blinked and watched her go, a little frown finding his subtly made-up face. Going over to the dancing bar on the far wall, he held on while facing the mirror wall on the other side of the room. He saw himself frowning back, and only frowned a little more. He wasn't dressed like all the other girls; he wore a loose white tee and his last pair of black pants instead of a leotard. This was the reason that Quistis had been his only teacher to know about his actual gender; he wouldn't be able to get away with no leotard if she didn't. And there was no way in hell fires he was going to wear anything skintight such as standard women's dance attire (as much as Rinoa had begged him to, he had to draw the line there.)

Thus, with a frown, he started practicing his jump/kicks in a "punctual" way. Whatever that was supposed to mean.

From the other side of the room, the green-eyed young woman was watching the oddly-dressed new dancer practicing on the bar, sighing quietly and leaning her face on her fists childishly and pouting slightly, blatantly neglecting the practice her own dancing routine. Another girl came over beside her and looked at what she was watching, then slapped the green-eyed girl's hair playfully with the towel that had been around her neck.

"What yah doing, Selphie? Instructor Trepe's gonna eatcha alive if yah don't get to dancin'!"

"Hold on," Selphie mumbled, watching with a bit of an amused smile as the obviously talented new brunette dancer, in an attempt to do an air-kick in a "punctual" manner, ended up kneeing himself in the face. With a little quiet yelp, he fell clumsily and held his nose in his hands. A little too punctual, maybe?

"Damn..." Squall mumbled, glaring at his fallen reflection. 'I'm not getting this right at all.'

Smiling more broadly, she walked over to this new girl, folding her arms across her chest and tapping her foot with a smart-ass look.

"Heh heh, you having a little control problem, newbie?" She stopped tapping her foot and narrowed her eyes in a grin. Squall glanced up, still holding his nose, and his eyes flickered sharply, shooting icy daggers at the unwelcome company. She stuck her tongue out cutely and made a victory sign with her hands.

"Sorry to bother ya," she said with a little girlish sneer, "but I was just wonderin' why ya look so much like someone I know." She raised an eyebrow suggestively.

Squall froze, and his glare turned into an inquisitive and suspicious stare.

"What are you talking about?" he asked quietly, frowning.

Selphie waited a moment before sitting down by Squall with her legs crossed Indian-style. Leaning back on her arms, she openly scrutinized him.

"What's your name?" She finally asked, not answering the original question and bringing up her own instead. Squall frowned and looked away silently, lightly tracing little nothings in the ground with his index finger.

"C'mon, then!" She urged, straightening her back and leaning forward to gently knead Squall's shoulder with her knuckles. "I'm Selphie." She sighed soundlessly and vainly flipped part of her milk-chocolate colored hair.

Squall refused to speak. Instead, he stood up and positioned himself back on the bar, prepping for another kick/jump. Selphie stood back a bit from fearing her own safety and watched as he executed it very nicely. Moss-green eyes narrowed in a smart grin and she pursed her lips.

"Ya aren't half bad, newbie. What's your name, now?" she added, hoping it sounded like an afterthought.

Squall ignored her again and prepared to try the jump/kick once more. The green-eyed girl frowned and crossed her arms again.

"Hey, I'm asking ya a question!" she persisted as he came down from another good kick with a slightly sketchy landing, hands clutching the support bar tightly. He prepped another jump and Selphie sighed and shook her head to herself.

"Oh, just a random guess but..." She stepped closer, "...your name wouldn't happen to be 'Squall Loire,' would it?"

Caught by surprise, Squall fumbled and the foot caught on the support bar at the same moment his hands slipped from it, swinging him down and causing him to hit the back of his head on the floor with a loud "thud."

Squall didn't open his eyes for a moment; he wasn't unconscious, but he just didn't feel like moving, because his head had immediately started throbbing. Quistis rushed over and glanced disapprovingly at Selphie before leaning down by Squall.

"Squall, are you okay?" She fanned his face calmly, keeping her composure and studying him with no semblance of urgency. Selphie only looked away. So this new one's name was Squall, after all...

He sat up slowly and when he opened his silver-blue eyes, they were immediately glaring at Selphie. He glanced then at Quistis.

"I'm fine," he mumbled, getting up and rubbing his head inconspicuously as some of the startled other dancers watched curiously for a few more moments before returning to their work. Before the green-eyed spunkpot could say more, Quistis ushered her away to work on her own dance. But Selphie's head couldn't keep thoughts of Squall away for the rest of class.

Lucky her. Squall's head couldn't keep the _pain_ away for the rest of class.

-o-0-o-

"Squall! What's wrong, girl? You don't look so great."

Squall was back at his locker again, putting away his dance bag and pulling out a black case from his bag. The brunette's mouth twisted in disapproval, hoping to indicate he didn't want to reply to the crested blonde beside him. Instead of asking again, Zell noticed the case and a boyish grin stretched his face.

"Sweet! You have band class, too?"

Squall blinked to the side anxiously. _'Too.' _Sighing soundlessly, he knew this meant that he'd be forced to take along an escort. And somehow he figured Zell would be following him like this for more than just one day.

"Yeah..." he said with a little shrug, leaning slightly and stretching for a moment.

Zell's distant stare and the furious blush that had squirmed across the blonde's face was not entirely unnoticed by Squall, and the brunette glanced down curiously, mid-stretch, to see that his shirt had ridden up to show a bit of his flat stomach. Face warming up, Squall dropped the stretch and looked away as Zell apologized quietly.

Squall cursed himself in his mind. Had he honestly already become this comfortable with his outfit? Silently he hoped that this didn't mean that after the year of school he'd decide to continue wearing drag because he had gotten so accustomed to it.

Then he floated off into deep thought, staring pensively at nothing. What _would_ happen after he graduated from GHS? He knew it couldn't be possible that he just be able to graduate and then end up never working with or seeing any of his classmates again, so eventually they'd all find out he was actually a guy. The pondering brunette felt a little guilty by this, to deceive everyone, but then reminded him that this was all society's fault, and not his. Well, mostly not his, except for him being him. But was _that_ really even his fault?

"Uhhmm...yo…we're gonna be late for class..."

A gentle poke at the side of his head made Squall jump slightly and impulsively slam his locker shut. Zell stared at him quizzically and Squall blinked at him apologetically.

"Sorry..." he tried quietly. "...I lost myself for a second. Can you tell me where the band room is?"

At this, the happy-go-lucky blonde straightened up and a victorious grin found his face again as he leaned back.

"No prob! I'll walk you there!" he whooped.

'_How did I guess...' _Squall sighed and nodded with very little vigor. Zell's immaculately blue eyes danced joyously when he saw that nobody else seemed to be escorting the pretty brunette. Nodding triumphantly, he took the lead.

"We'll be there in a second! I know this school like the back of my hand. Just follow the master," he said, jabbing the air with his fists twice before bouncing on.

Watching with darkly-outlined silver-blue eyes and an amused expression, Squall followed after the overzealous blonde.

-o-0-o-

"Hurry!" Zell urged as they ran in mid-bell. Squall obliged, and they made it before the bell could stop ringing. Luckily, it didn't look as if anyone was quite organized yet. People were scattered about, screwing around with their instruments or with band equipment or chattering nonchalantly.

"Hey, hey!" An extremely tall, skinny man with a green-blue shirt, tan slacks, and shoulder-length wavy blonde hair that was almost too yellow, came into view and pushed his turquoise-tinted "John Lennon" sunglasses down to the middle of nose. Squall frowned slightly. This guy didn't look like a very serious teacher, but more like the liberal type that kids would want hang out with. The brunette wasn't fond of this type of teacher at all. But at least he wasn't horrifically strict.

"Yo! Ladies and Dudes!" he called out, in a bit of a dumb accent, "Peace, and listen up!"

Slowly but surely, the cacophonous mess of students calmed down and some sat in chairs. Squall didn't, and Zell, noticing this, only stood beside the brunette.

"Alright, we're back at school so I want all you lovers to just remember that we gotta get some stuff done this year!"

Many of the students grinned. Squall got the feeling that many of them knew this teacher from before. Then again, that would make a lot of sense, wouldn't it?

"For our radical new brothers and sisters, I'm Mr. Ethan Levi, your band instructor! But I go by 'Nature Snake.' Peace to all of you, little freedom fighters! Now, let's get your seats and some of this rad new sheet music, then we'll start on a whole new year of expressing from our souls and hearts!"

Squall's mouth twitched up in a little humorless smile, looking like he might kill something (but only how he looked; how he felt was embarrassed sarcasm.) Zell chuckled and nudged him in the side.

Mr. Levi (or 'Nature Snake') started to go around to his students but didn't stay very long at each of them; he knew most of them and their musical inclination. But when he got to Squall, he blinked and a wide grin crossed his face.

"You're Squall, isn't that right, my sister?"

Squall's eye twitched and he nodded slowly, watching as his freakishly liberal new teacher patted him on the head.

"Hmm...those prideful lips, those psychedelic eyes..." he studied Squall intensely, "I think we'll call you 'Gentle Lioness.' Yes, it suits you well, friend."

Mr. Levi grinned and Squall honestly felt like just falling over dead right there. This teacher couldn't possibly get any worse.

"And what is your method of expressing your soul and heart, Gentle Lioness?"

"S-Saxophone..." The dismayed brunette mumbled, looking away. Ethan's face brightened considerably and Zell just watched the scene, slightly amused at Squall's reaction to their weird teacher.

"Fantabulous! Well little sister, go over and join the other two Saxers! Wonderful, we needed some more...Oh! You're well-experienced in the instrument?"

"Yeah," he said very quietly. Ethan patted his back with a huge beam.

"Those two'll get you right set up! It's about time we had some more Saxers. Those Fluties have been overpowering the mighty Sax in their numbers! It's time to join the resistance, little freedom fighter!"

Squall stared after Ethan as the man moved on, wondering if he had been speaking in some sort of freakish code. As Squall walked away, he couldn't help but smile inwardly as Ethan reached Zell with a shout:

"How incredible to see you here another year, Serene Chicken! Please, my brother, go join with your place in our small world! Make love to your drums, not war! Fantastic!"

When Squall got to the Sax section, he didn't look at them, hoping that they would grant him the same treatment, and he pulled a chair beside the other two. They did look at him, however, perplexed. After all, it wasn't often that their frail Saxophone section gained another member.

"Whoa! Excuse me, miss, are you..." the platinum-haired young man blinked his blue-greenish eyes down and noticed Squall's saxophone, effectively answering his question.

Squall blinked up tiredly at the tall boy with almost white hair, nodding without much energy. He turned his gaze to the other Sax player, and frowned, groaning inwardly.

Smirking pure green eyes watched him carefully and the other one's grin widened.

"That," the turquoise-eyed and white-haired one said, gesturing to the blonde, "is Seifer Almasy, and I'm Zephyr Roth. And you're...?"

"It's Squall," Seifer answered for him, and silver-blue eyes flickered indignantly and he glared at the casual blonde. How had he found out! With a dismayed frown that wasn't going anywhere, he contemplated the fact that this Almasy was probably going to tell his name to Irvine, giving the cowboy the benefit of the yellow pages and school directories.

"Squall, huh?" Zephyr grinned and brushed some of his shiny, shoulder-length hair out of his face.

"Yep, I'm pretty sure," Seifer continued, not letting Squall actually say anything. "I mean, 'Zephyr' and 'Squall'...sounds like fate to me," the blonde joked, "Maybe I should go change my name to 'Gust' or something. What do you think?" He smirked narrowly at the brunette, and Squall scowled at him.

"Whatever," he said in his mellow voice. "Can you just get me the music?"

Zephyr nodded and pulled out one of many never used copies of their part's music and then sat down, scooting his chair to make a bit of a crooked triangle with Squall's and Seifer's seats. He smirked at the other two.

"Right-o. Let's see...lets just start out from the simplest part here," Zeph said, pointing to a page for the other two to see. Squall's calves crossed and uncrossed as he pulled up his sax. Seifer had his instrument.

"Can you sight-read?" The thought that Squall might not know how apparently hadn't occurred to the teal-eyed young man until that point. But the brunette nodded slowly, and Seifer watched him with a raised eyebrow and hidden smirk.

"Let's go at tempo, then," the blonde said lightly, and both Zephyr and Squall stared at him incredulously.

"The first time around?" Zeph asked, frowning dubiously and glancing over the notes where they sat on the stand.

"Sure, why not?" Seifer grinned smugly at Squall as if daring him to say otherwise. Zeph laughed, his voice rather easy on the ears. Squall wondered if Zeph was in choir as well as band. He figured the silver-haired young man would stand out in singing. Squall caught himself staring and then glanced down at his own notes. It did not go unnoticed by Seifer.

The blonde frowned and then glanced at Zeph quickly. Sure, the guy was a pretty boy, and was quite popular with the ladies, but it was usually girls that had tried for Seifer or Irvine first and then failed and had been left with him as a last choice.

But this new girl hadn't looked at _Seifer_ like that. The blonde wondered what Squall could see in Zephyr and Zell that wasn't in himself. It kind of aggravated him. Sure, he was spoiled. He never had to wonder this about a girl before.

"You want to keep time, Squall?" Zeph asked, staring at him with his teal eyes, kind of pointed at the ends. Squall kept studying the music a moment longer and then glanced up apologetically.

"Hold on...I'm not that fast," Squall mumbled, glaring at his feet. "I can sight-read but not at this tempo the first time..."

Zephyr and Seifer both grinned.

"Then how about we go solo first time around at our own speed?" Zeph suggested, eyeing Seifer then the vexed brunette. Seifer shrugged, not taking his gaze off of Squall as his candy-green eyes shimmered in amusement.

"Okay," Squall shrugged, looking at his music then expectantly at Zephyr and Seifer, who were both looking back at him the same way.

"You go ahead," Zeph said off-handedly, looking back at his own music and sitting back. Seifer crossed his arms and nodded.

Silver flickered over the blue eyes in annoyance, and Squall pursed his lips and brushed his messy chocolate-colored hair out of his face, positioning the sax at his mouth and tapping his foot to keep his own time, not quite as fast as the tempo was supposed to be, but still a moderately fast speed.

'_How cute_,' Seifer thought to himself almost sarcastically as Squall ran through the first part, '_She's really trying hard_.'

When Squall finished, Zeph grinned and gave him a thumb-up.

"Looks like you've got a good practice under your belt. Just work on your form a little," he added, offering Squall a little narrow grin. The demure brunette lowered his head a little and crossed his calves again, nodding.

"Thanks," he mumbled. '_I think._'

Next, Zephyr went. He was really good, in Squall's opinion. He didn't' make a single mistake and he'd gone at tempo. And, he wasn't a hypocrite...he had very good form as far as Squall could tell.

But when Seifer went...

He was..._amazing_. The hapless brunette couldn't stop himself from watching the blonde play the whole way through. He played everything perfectly like Zeph had, but he also had a certain intensity that completely magnetized Squall's gaze to him. He swayed at just the right moments and didn't even look at the notes the whole time; his eyelids were all the way down and brows creased intensely. The brunette wondered if Seifer was some sort of prodigy who could memorize large stanzas of notes with one look.

Squall hadn't even realized the musical part had finished until shockingly green eyes met his with a bit of a confused look, and the brunette frowned and looked down at his notes. Zeph looked between the two and a small grin crept up his face.

They continued practicing.

-o-0-o-

"You're such a show-off."

Seifer blinked up at the silver-haired young man who was smiling down at him as he picked up his stuff. Squall and many other students had already left, but he and Zephyr usually stayed behind band class a few minutes. It was before lunch break, anyway.

"What?" he asked, narrowing jade-green eyes at smiling teal ones.

"That girl, Squall," Zephyr said, folding his arms across his chest and cocking his head, brushing aside long, whitish bangs and tucking some behind his ear. "You were totally showing off for her." He feigned a fake pout. "You never try that hard for _me_!"

Seifer stood up and shook his head with a little smirk, brushing past his friend and walking off. "Let's go," he replied with a little amusement, and Zeph pulled his sax case over to the other instruments, leaving it there and following after the lofty blonde.

"Oi, 'Eifer, why're you taking your sax with you?"

Seifer stopped and turned, green eyes studying his friend with an inquisitive glance at his empty hands, and then gripped his sax case tighter.

"Because generally, to play it, I'd need to have it with me." He said, raising an eyebrow. "And don't call me 'Eifer,' weirdo," the blonde added with a lopsided grin.

"Why shouldn't I?" Zeph ran over to him before he could get out of the room and nudged him. "Hmm? 'Eifer?"

He poked Seifer's chest then looked up with a coy grin, cupping the blonde's face in his hands and leaning up, closing with a kiss. Before he could deepen it, Seifer pushed him off, though not very forcefully, and wiped his mouth.

"Listen," he started, wearing a little smile but a dark expression anyway, "I understand that you're horny...as always," he added with a little smirk, "but I'm not handing out favors this year...sexual or not. You know goddamn well I'm _not_ into guys."

Zeph sighed and folded his arms across his chest again, tapping his foot and looking down at it pensively.

"...I guess you're right..." he mumbled, and when green eyes watched him, stupefied, he looked up with his thoughtful frown and pursed his lips.

"I got myself a boy back in Dollet over the summer," Zeph explained, grinning. "Cute blonde. Guess this year, me 'n you could be considered cheating."

Seifer lifted an eyebrow. "Wow. That easy? Damn, I hoped there might be a little drama. I'm glad, though. It was getting a little old." His lips quirked up in a little smirk. Zeph gave him a hesitant look.

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean I can tell the folks you're still..."

The blonde frowned and waved it off. "Nah, its fine. I figured its time I taught the old man to make his own living."

He laughed shortly, then turned away quickly before Zeph could see the next expression on his face. The platinum-haired boy touched his shoulder with concern before the blonde could walk away.

"Sei..."

"What?" he replied kind of roughly, turning back his tired gaze.

"We can be friends after this, though, right?" he asked, hopeful intention shining in his narrowed teal eyes.

Seifer sighed and shrugged Zeph's hand off his shoulder, throwing back a bit of a sleepy smile and nodding. "Sure thing. We're cool."

"Hup there, brothers!" a familiar voice shouted across the room cheerfully, "Nature Snake is always encouraging more love, but you two are missing the digestibles!"

Zeph laughed again, saluting Ethan with a wide grin and following Seifer out of the band room.

"Thanks, Mr. Levi! See ya!"

"Call me Nature Snake, friend! And remember, make love, not war!"

"Squally!" Rinoa latched herself onto her step-brother's arm and grinned her cute girlish grin up at him, and he squirmed.

"Ri-Rinoa. Please don't," he hissed, noticing all the stares from all around the hall. His hands absently trailed to feel the back of his skirt, and Rinoa saved him, noticing this and slapping his hand away before it could touch his bum.

The dark-haired little pixie giggled and let him go, inspecting Squall thoroughly before nodding.

"You've kept yourself up pretty great, Squall" she said happily, clapping her hands together. "Your eyeliner's in place, too! Guess you haven't been crying! Hehe!"

"Crying? Why?" Zell's curious face popped up on one side of Squall and the brunette's back stiffened.

"She's just kidding," Squall mumbled, silver-blue eyes narrowing at his step-sister. Rinoa smiled sheepishly.

"Hey, didn't I have first three classes with you?" she asked lightly of Zell, who blinked thoughtfully and offered her a sloppy grin.

"I think so," he said, shrugging. "I just remember that crazy stunt you pulled in second hour." He raised a cut-off blonde eyebrow at her and she stuck her tongue out.

"Serves you right for hitting on my sister!" she laughed, and both Squall and Zell blushed, though the blonde reddened much more profusely.

"He wasn't," Squall muttered, huffing and looking away, shifting his weight on his almost completely bare legs. Zell nodded vigorously.

"It's true. I'm just glad to have a friend," the crested blonde said, looking at his feet.

Rinoa raised an eyebrow and looked from Squall to Zell, and then back to her brother.

"Friend, huh?" she crossed her arms and jutted out a hip expectantly. "Is your friend gonna show us ladies a nice coffee shop or café in town?" she asked dubiously. Squall sighed and gave his sister a "please stop" look. She winked at him, round, dark brown eyes shining cutely.

"Huhhh?" Zell blinked his shining ultramarine eyes and gave Rinoa a bit of a dumb look before donning a childish frown. "I don't know. I personally like GHS' own cafeteria. Great hot dogs," he added with a dreamy smile. Rinoa giggled and poked him.

"Weirdo. Who would stay at school for lunch hour? Nobody normal!" She looked at Squall, who was rubbing his head, something he did when he was thinking.

"Whaddya think, Squally?"

He glanced up at her apologetically and smiled.

"I think I'm going to stay here. You go explore town without me," he said quietly, and when Rinoa frowned and opened her mouth to protest, he continued, "If you find a good place, I'll go with you next time."

Frowning slightly, she pouted and shrugged. "Okay, fine. But I'm not letting ya do this again tomorrow! I'll find a great place!"

She smiled and kissed his cheek before catching up to some girls she had met in class earlier. Squall watched after her, rubbing the back of his neck. Zell's eyes, the most pleasant shade of cerulean, regarded him carefully.

"Uh...wanna join me for hot dogs, then?" Zell asked, and even this made a pinkness kiss the blonde's cheeks. Squall's lips quirked up in a tiny smile and he nodded.

"Excuse me! Squall!" The brunette sighed soundlessly and turned, seeing his dance teacher, Quistis, walking up to him briskly, wearing a pristine black suit. He raised a dark brown eyebrow at her but she didn't pay it any mind.

"You left your shirt in the dance room," she said, apparently in a hurry. "The last dance class was last hour, so I had to lock up the studio, but your stuff is in the hallway's storage closet." She shoved a key into his hand. "Just return the key to the office when you have your things. I have an appointment out of the school. Good day," she finished briskly, nodding to him and clicking off on her high heels.

Squall stared after her, dumbstruck, and lowered his silver-blue gaze to the key in his hand, then glancing at Zell, who look equally confused.

"Can I find you in a few minutes?" he asked, voice still quiet as ever, and Zell nodded slowly.

"Okay. Do you need help finding the cafete—"

"_No_." Squall interjected, a little irritated. The blonde smiled sheepishly and waved, jogging off.

A pair of curious teal eyes watched curiously as the lean brunette in the short denim skirt walked off to the hall by the storage closet, unaware of his gaze. A small smile crept up the watcher's face and he ran in the other direction.

-o-0-o-

"Seifer!" Zephyr reached Seifer, Irvine, and a small flock of girls that were horded around the two. He leaned over on his knees and caught his breath. The blonde glanced down on him, past all the girls, candy-green eyes holding a quizzical look.

"Zeph...what's wrong?" He asked, scratching above his forehead at his hairline and squinting.

"Co-Come, quick! It's...It's...!"

The platinum-haired young man caught his breath, and frantically waved Seifer over to follow him, sprinting down the hallway. The lofty blonde young man watched stupidly for a moment before wading through the squealing girls and taking off after Zeph.

"I'll be right back," he called out to Irvine, who shrugged and grinned widely.

"Take yer time, cowboy," Irvine mumbled, lazily blinking his hazy crystal-blue eyes, smiling dumbly, and slinging his arms around two girls that were clinging to his sides. "More girls for me."

Zeph slowed down when he approached the dance hallway, and saw the storage closet door was wide open, the key still in the door. He grinned and walked over, hearing loud, heavy, and quick footfalls nearing his back.

"Hey, Zeph!" Seifer stopped abruptly when he saw the teal-eyed boy standing by the open closet with his back to him, and walked over slowly, catching his breath. "What was that a—AH!"

Clutching firm hands to Seifer's broad shoulders, Zeph used all of his body's force to shove the blonde headfirst into the closet, slamming the door shut after him and turning the key in the knob, locking the door and taking the key.

"...THE HELL! ZEPHYR! LET ME OUT OF HERE!"

Zeph sighed and put a hand on his hip, grinning widely as his blonde friend banged on the other side of the door and screamed profanities. He shook his platinum-haired head to himself with a triumphant smirk and walked off.

-o-0-o-

"Little piece of...! Get your ass back here! Zephyr!" Seifer growled against the door in the dark as it slowly hit him that Zeph had locked him in here and wasn't coming back for a while. He leaned down against the wall and crossed his arms, stretching his legs out and accidentally kicking something.

"Hnn."

The blonde heard a strange little noise and leaned forward.

"Somebody there...?" he asked quietly, squinting into the dark but still unable to see anything. '_Damn. There isn't a light in here..._'

He heard some shuffling and reached a hand out, touching something that felt like...an arm. The blonde's eyebrows raised slowly.

"Who's there?" he asked the body, expression then darkening, "and do you have anything to do with Zephyr's little 'plan?'"

"Get me out of here," a voice growled, and jade-green eyes, not visible in the dark, widened. He sat back for a moment.

"...Squall?"

He heard another hissing sound and a small smile crept up Seifer's lips. So that's what Zeph had been planning. Well, he couldn't really hate his friend for giving him this opportunity to get the ice princess to warm up. Not that he hadn't already, at least by a little, judging by the way those gorgeous angel-eyes were staring at him when he played sax. He smirked. Then again, his musical skills tended to do that to people. That and his ability to totally milk his talent.

"I can't get you out. I can't even get _me_ out," Seifer started, crossing his arms and leaning back against the door, eyes closed. "That dipshit Zephyr locked me in here for some reason."

"This is your fault," the brunette growled, turning his head away from Seifer's voice. "You'd better hope that I'm not late."

Seifer chuckled, not moving, eyes still closed in the pitch dark.

"You sure are a piece of work," he said, and Squall sent a narrow glare at the direction of Seifer's voice (he couldn't see anything.)

"Whatever," the brunette scowled and leaned his chin on his hands, elbows propped up on his crossed legs.

They sat in silence for a while, both of them shifting a little uncomfortable every few moments. Finally, Seifer sighed loudly.

"You met my friend Irvine, didn't you?"

Squall sounded like he had choked, and started coughing quietly.

"Y-yeah. (cough) He's an ass."

Seifer opened his jade-green eyes and let out a genuine laugh. Squall's eyes widened slightly and he stared inquisitively in the direction of the laugh. Seifer had a strange laugh, not in a bad way, just unusual. For some reason, the only image in Squall's mind when the blonde laughed was hot melted chocolate pouring onto a white china plate. ...Maybe he was losing his sanity, after all...

"He's pretty full of himself, isn't he..." Seifer mumbled with a little smile. Squall looked away, not that anything looked any different; everything was black.

"You know..." the brunette started softly, and Seifer closed his eyes again, leaning his head back against the door.

"What?"

Squall glanced in his direction sharply.

"You're even _more_ full of shit."

Well. Seifer certainly hadn't been expecting that. He didn't want to smile, but he found that he was anyway. It didn't really matter, the only person he had to hide anything from was himself, because Squall couldn't see him.

"I'm sad you'd think that," the tall blonde returned. Squall huffed and leaned his face in his arms with a sigh.

"Sure," he mumbled, closing his eyes and remembering Zell's words in homeroom, "like it matters to you what another 'slut' thinks."

Seifer blinked his eyes open and stared into the ceiling blackness.

"Hmm." All he could do was hum thoughtfully, and then he cracked a smile. "If you can resist even me and Irvine, then you couldn't be a slut," he laughed again, but this time it was less genuine and less intriguing. Squall was silenced for a moment, frowning.

"Whatever..." he mumbled, turning his face away from the side Seifer was on.

Seifer sighed, not knowing what else to say. Silence prevailed again and Squall started tapping his foot, squirming it around in the uncomfortable flip-flop. He sighed in frustration.

"Don't get why anyone would wear these," the brunette mumbled to himself, but Seifer listened with an attentive ear and chuckled, shaking his head, and leaning it back against the door.

"You're really different from the other girls, Squall," he said in a kind of smooth voice, turning on the charm. He'd show Irvine. This girl wasn't as hard to crack as the cowboy had made it seem. Then again, Irvine had always been way too tactless. Squall was an easy case for someone like Seifer.

The brunette let out a short, humorless laugh.

"I know your little game," he said flatly. "Just drop it. I'd never go near anyone like you or your fake, conceited friends."

Ouch. Irvine was kind of right; she was harsh.

"Well, why are you near me now?" Seifer tried, massaging his jaw tiredly.

Squall hesitated, then frowned with a scowl. "I would never be of my own will," he corrected pointedly, scooting away from Seifer slightly.

Neither said anything for an even longer silence. Seifer kept lightly tapping the back of his head against the door out of boredom and Squall folded his arms under his chest and shivered, bare shoulders getting kind of chilly. Of course he didn't let on that he was cold; he didn't want any unwanted attention. He just wanted to get out and get away.

Seifer really didn't know what to do. He wasn't about to give up, but so far the only tactics he'd had to use on slightly less eager girls in the past were already not working. Even the stubborn ones had cracked after a few of his lines, and some saxophone. This one was just something else.

The blonde opened his mouth slowly.

"My..." he started tentatively, "...I was never close to my dad."

Squall was nearly startled by that statement. Looking up and in the direction of the other young man's voice, he raised a dark eyebrow and gave a narrow frown.

"Why would I care..." Squall mumbled half-heartedly, looking away.

Seifer thought to himself a moment. Maybe she was the type that was into sensitive guys. That had to be it. He smiled to himself, knowing the brunette wouldn't be able to see it.

"Ever since I was a kid..." he continued, "neither of my parents really cared much for me. Funny how that works, huh..."

Squall huffed and smiled bitterly to himself. '_Funny how it works_,' he agreed in his mind.

"They thought I was a liability more than their own freaking kid...they _still_ do, I think."

The brunette was silent, pretending to ignore him but really listening intently. That sounded a lot like himself. '_I **am** a liability, aren't I..._' he thought sadly, turning his head over and sighing soundlessly.

"They got me lots of stuff, but I wasn't really happy 'cause they never actually acted like they liked me. You know, 'just love me' and all that shit."

Squall hummed in agreement involuntarily and nodded to himself, closing his eyes. _'All that shit is right...'_

"I'm supposed to be a top student for them," he laughed shortly, blinking hazy candy-green eyes open at the black ceiling again. "I'm pretty much a shit head, though. Only thing I can really do right is play sax, and they hate that. Too bad it's the only thing I like," he added bitterly.

'_Only thing I can do is dance, and she hated it. The bitch.'_

The brunette sighed loudly and frowned at Seifer.

"Great sob story, but its not going to work. I'm not charmed," he said flatly, and Seifer blinked in surprise, dropping his head from its position back and staring down at where his hands were. He didn't say anything more.

The blonde sighed and massaged his face in his hands. Was it just him or was it really cold?

Suddenly, the door opened behind Seifer and he fell on his back, quick to climb up. There was Zephyr, grinning widely.

"How'd it go? Did you sco...whoa. Seifer..." the teal-eyed boy frowned and pinched the blonde's face. "Shit, man, you look like death warmed over. What the heck happened to you?"

Seifer blinked dazed green eyes and felt his own face, a confused expression falling on it as he looked at Zeph.

"What are you talking about?"

The platinum-haired young man glanced behind Seifer to see Squall looking just as screwy. The brunette pushed past Seifer and glared at him and Zephyr.

"I already told you not to try that with me. You even have your facial expression down right..." Squall gave a bitter, displeased sneer. "I just hope you know people like you two have sick hearts. Don't bother me again, please." With that he hurried off and went to find Zell to apologize for missing him all of lunch.

Zeph and Seifer watched, silenced, as the pretty brunette left. The teal-eyed young man glanced up at his stressed friend and raised an eyebrow.

"Hey, what the hell happened in there, 'Eifer?" He asked quietly, and the blonde just shook his head and started walking.

"That never happened to me. I tried to charm her...but then I forgot and I just kept going on and on. Well...screw it, Zeph. This is damned weird. I think I'm gonna give her up to Irvine."

Zephyr raised an eyebrow and a little smile graced his lips.

"Seifer, I..." he started, then smiled more broadly, "I have no idea what the hell you're talking about, but if you think I could help, then I will, no problem." He patted the blonde's back. "Oh, and since this apparently has something to do with Irvine, I'd tread carefully if I were you," he added with a little laugh.

The green-eyed young man smiled tiredly and nodded, rubbing his eyelids. Why did he feel so tired? And...why the _hell_ did he feel so…unattractive?

Ouuuh. _Weird._

"Thanks. But damn, I'm really confused. I hope I never meet a girl like her again."

Zephyr laughed and sighed loudly, shaking his head.

"I hope, for you sake, that you don't, either."

-o-0-o-

Holy chocobos! O.O What the heck is going with Squall's and Seifer's families? Dx Wanna know? Then reviewwww. XD Err...I was really tired when writing this, so I'm sorry that it's not very good. X,x

Another apology for my late update. :'D

:offers all her reviewers strawberry ice cream and chocobo-print boxers:

(Zell plushies available instead, upon request. n.n)


	6. So He Holds her Dear

Lol, I guess it would seem kind of unorthodox that Seifer brought up his dad in the last chapter, but you see, the effect I was going for was Seifer was supposed to be trying to charm Squall by seeming sensitive, so he brought up the whole family issues thing to impress Squall or whatever, not to open up or nothing, but that's what he ended up doing without realizing. Seemed a little spontaneous, I know, and I'm sorry for any misunderstandings...;-;

Also, sorry this update took so long. I've been more into my piano lately, and besides, school has arrived...Fwee! I skipped our school AHS' first football game of the season just so I could come home and write this for you guys...well, that's actually a lie, but I totally would have if I could have. XD Ehah...it's the thought that counts! MOSTLY this took so long because my internet broke down early on Sunday, and it didn't come back for loooong time. Damn you, Comcast! May you burn in the fiery pits of Nicaragua! (err...did I say that right?)

I was also having a bit of a block on this story, but I'm figuring it out (I hope.)

Notes: Even though it doesn't make much sense, they are all in senior year unless otherwise specified (and none have been yet.) This has been done for the sake of simplicity and so that my brain doesn't explode. Same with the fact that every one of them is taking the core classes and two electives as if they were in 9th grade, you know...just so it wouldn't take me 5 hours to create the schedules so that they'd have enough encounters with one another. Omp.

Also, their schedules are a little blocky. Like, I have Fujin, Raijin, and Kiros with almost the same schedule, separate from the rest of the cast, so you won't see them much together with the others.

Sorry, after this took so long, there is so very little S/S going on here...just some advancing of the plot line...but there WILL be more happy fluffiness in the next chapter! Not very fluffy though, because that would completely kill the advancing plot xD

* * *

"_I know your parents want you to be a doctor or a lawyer or such, but if those aren't your dreams, don't follow them. 'Follow every rainbow, until you find your dream!' Hey, what **does** come after Fa?"_

-from squalmasy's yearbook

**

* * *

**

**Dancing in Drag**

**Chapter 6: So He Holds Her Dear**

"Come on, kids, let's all get reacquainted! Summer's over, so you all have to carry your weight around here, whether you want to or not."

Shifting a bit in his seat, the monstrous, dark-skinned bulk glanced to the side at his sitting mate with a bit of a dumb grin.

"This is gonna be fun, just us two partners buildin' things in woodshop...together, ya know," he said slowly, small eyes narrowing in a thuggish smile. The young woman next to him crossed her legs and looked away sharply, silvery hair flipping with the same briskness as she refused to acknowledge her new woodworking partner.

"Guh huh," Raijin's laugh made him sound...mentally challenged, to say the least. His grin widened and the girl dressed in blue frowned darkly at the sound of the infernal idiot that insisted on speaking to her at every given chance. Too bad he was just too stupid to get the message that she was not interested.

She impatiently tapped her fingers on the working counter and glared at nothing through her one good eye, waiting for their Woodshop instructor, none other than Ma Dincht, to instruct them further.

"I mean..." Raijin continued his ramble, so happily oblivious to the fact that Fujin really had no intention of listening, "It must be Christmas or something, coz I got blocks of wood, a saw, and a pretty girl right by me. If only Zelly could see this, he'd be jealous, ya know..."

Fujin's nose twitched and her mouth formed a bit of a dry smile.

What. A. Complete. Idiot.

Of course, she didn't speak, and he only continued to go on and on about things that Fujin would never in her life think once about, let alone twice. Fishing, electronic dictionaries, chocolate shaped like mushrooms, hairbrushes that are reminiscent in shape to a Cactuar.

"...Shut up."

Raijin stopped quickly, stared, and grinned widely. "This is going to be the best class! Every day we get to hang out, ya know?" He had totally missed the point and negative emotion of her request. It just flew straight past him.

Fujin blinked rapidly, head still turned away from the dark-skinned hulk, and a fair eyebrow dipped down in a light frown. Raijin was not stopping, and her mind was now riddled with pointless information that she couldn't help but register.

But, though she wouldn't admit it, chocolate shaped like mushrooms...was a pretty wild idea.

-o-0-o-

Squall hadn't been able to locate Zell before lunch ended, so he decided to not worry too much and just went to his 5th period class.

The room was dark, constituting perpetual morbidity, and it made Squall a little uncomfortable. All the windows were covered by thick shades; the room had been emptied of the school's standard fluorescent lighting and replaced, instead, by dim, low-power lights with red filters. The walls, ceiling, and carpet were all black. Even the furniture. It was difficult to distinguish anything, especially the teacher: a black silhouette sitting in a tall, eerie chair.

"Squall! Over here!"

Two voices, very different in sound, called out to him at the same time. He looked up and dark brown eyebrows fell flat as he recognized this situation.

Brown eyes and pure-blue met in an instant and narrowed at each other. Squall sighed. Of course he would end up having Mathematics with Rinoa and Zell. Of course.

"Aw Squall, please sit with meee!" Rinoa made a cute face.

"Come on, Squall, sit here, I saved you a seat!" Zell attempted to make a cute face.

Silver-blue eyes lowered to watch his tapping foot and he crossed his arms as Rinoa and Zell sent bad vibes across the room at each other. Partly entertaining, mostly a nuisance. Thankfully, (or perhaps not,) the teacher had arisen from his "throne;" most could tell by the giant looming shadow that darkened the room even further, and many were silenced.

"Miss...Loire," the tall, dark figure with an odd posture spoke, and his voice held a strange darkness to it that made Squall's insides twist with an explosion of morbid emotion, "You will be sitting there." A long, skinny finger with a strangely sharp nail pointed to the back. Squall, ignoring the feeling of death that had bubbled up inside him, and saw the seat he meant: not near Zell, and not near Rinoa, but...

The brunette's mouth twisted in disapproval and silver darkened somewhat over turbulent blue eyes. Irvine.

The cowboy's expression went in the opposite direction of Squall's; his wide, thin mouth pinched up in a quirky grin and his eyes brightened as he rose his smile to either impress or taunt him. Squall scowled slightly and glanced at his teacher to protest, but just looking at the instructor filled him with morbid, suicidal thoughts. He sucked in a shaky breath and turned to take his seat.

"Very well, then," the strange, dark teacher smiled crookedly and drummed his fingers against each other the way an evil genius would, "welcome to your mathematics course. I'm your instructor, Mr. Diablos."

-o-0-o-

Squall felt like he was about to break down and sob.

Honestly! The combination of Irvine's pestering and the dark, impossibly depressing room with lights the color of stale blood, was seriously something that could make you want to cry. Now Squall truly understood the full meaning of the psychology of painting a room. He was so damned depressed.

"You don't look so good, honey," Irvine whispered to him during the time they were given to work on their homework. He smiled slightly then. "But then again, you could never look bad..."

Squall only had enough life in him to shoot not even a half-hearted glare, but more of a quarter-hearted glare.

"Leave me alone..." he said, resenting immediately how whiny he sounded.

"Ahh," Irvine nodded slightly, understanding in those shadowed crystal-blue eyes, "I see. Diablos' room getting to ya?"

The brunette only blinked lazily and dropped his head into his arms on his desk, trying to block out the deathliness that floated around him. The cowboy chuckled.

"Well, if y'all are ever feeling a little down, you can always go to the warm arms of Mr. Kinneas," he suggested, holding his arms open for emphasis. Squall grunted slightly and turned his head away, glaring at one of the blood red, low-power lights that were making him feel murderous.

His legs crossed and uncrossed at the calves as Irvine continued to make tactless advances at him. For the most part, he ignored it, unless he'd have to climb out of his gloom to slap away one of the cowboy's wandering hands.

From the front of the room, green eyes, darkened incredibly by the lighting, watched the odd little scene between the two. An irked frown found the young man's face, and his eyes narrowed nearly to slits as he continued to watch until he felt a light tap on his shoulder.

He turned. "What do you-" And he stopped, going into his mind's reaches to turn the "charm" switch from off to on. He smiled slightly. "Hey."

Rinoa giggled. "What were you looking at?" she asked, her voice dripping with the message 'I'm so cute!'

Seifer's spectacular green eyes narrowed in a handsome, roguish grin. It is to be noted that his expression would not have been described as such, had he not switched on the "charm."

"Cowboy there is bugging that poor girl," he explained, voice forcibly smooth, "It's just so inconsiderate." He narrowed his eyes and frowned to show his "concern."

Rinoa grinned brightly. This guy was sensitive, caring, chivalrous, and damned handsome, to boot!

Seifer grinned back at her. All it took was his smooth-talking, and girls saw him as the perfect man.

'_So easy to trick these little whores_,' he told himself proudly. Ick. Sensitive and chivalrous, indeed!

Then Rinoa looked at "cowboy and poor girl." Her lips pinched into a smaller shape and dark brows rose thoughtfully.

"Gosh, that's my...sister," she said, touching her chin in concern, and carefully covering her almost slip-up. Candy-green eyes widened slightly at her and he turned to look in the direction Rinoa was looking, to be sure they were talking about the same person.

There was Irvine, sure enough, with a hand on Squall's shoulder, as the brunette slapped it away. Not more than two seconds later, the cowboy slid his gloved hand onto Squall's shoulder again, and it was slapped away, again. And he did it again. Slap. And again. Slap, slap. And again! Slap, slap, slap...left hook! Seifer grinned and started to count seconds. It was like watching pro boxing.

"That's your sister?" Seifer asked, lips quirked up in a little smile as jade-green eyes couldn't move away from the highly amusing scene.

"...Y-yeah," Rinoa's brown eyes were wide as well, as she also watched the two, a little embarrassed for Squall.

The blonde glanced to the side quickly to survey Rinoa more carefully. He frowned slightly. The two couldn't be related. Sure, both were incredibly hot, but...even Seifer's lazy mind could see a difference between their hotness.

He shook his head to himself, turning again to watch as Squall had folded his arms in front of his face as a form of self-defense and was attempting to kick Irvine with those slim, lovely legs that the blonde accidentally found himself staring at. Rinoa noticed this and gave him a dubious expression, turning back to face forward again, and clearing her throat.

Seifer blinked and turned back to her, grinning slightly, but not whole-heartedly.

"You two are honestly related, huh?" A blonde eyebrow rose and Rinoa turned back into her charming self.

"Yah! Well..." she frowned contemplatively, "Well, we're blood-related, so, that counts." She giggled slightly and nudged him in the side, nearly smothering Seifer in her flirtatiousness. He pursed his lips and mulled over her comment in his mind, then considered how very different this girl that claimed the other as her sister was from Squall. They were like...almost opposite.

"Hmp," Seifer shrugged to himself and faced forward again, straining to see in the dark room. Rinoa glanced to her side at the blonde, and studied him with her scrutinizing eye.

He was definitely tall; so tall that his head of nearly yellow hair caught much of the dull red light and looked almost pink. The darkness of the room made heavy shadows on his handsome features, making him seem kind of mysterious. From the side, Rinoa could only see his profile. His jaw was very...masculine; very square, and led up to a harshly rounded chin, past thin lips that, when he wasn't moving them, pointed down almost too much at the ends; a prominent, but not ugly nose, and subtle brow line where his forehead took a slightly negative angle and connected with the stray hair falling from his high hairline. Strangely enough, the accented shadows on his face brought attention to a very faded scar on his face, one that looked almost suspiciously similar to Squall's, only going in the other direction. It wasn't as noticeable as her brother's but that gave her a little chill anyway.

He was very handsome, and Rinoa knew it, too; there was something about Seifer that made him more, dare she think it, manly than most guys. Sure, being a man would constitute your manliness, but this was one of those...MAN guys...a Man man. Like, unlike Squall, if this blonde dressed in a skirt, he wouldn't look like a girl. He'd look like a guy in drag. He was definitely manly. Rinoa winced slightly.

'_Man, all this thinking is giving me a headache_.'

She giggled, and Seifer turned to glance at her inquisitively.

"What's funny?" He frowned slightly and blinked.

"Nothing, never mind," she said with a cute smile. He took on that charming smile again. The petite brunette felt her heart jump a little and her cheeks gained a lovely shade of pink.

Uh-oh.

-o-0-o-

"I think it's just great that we get to be lab partners!"

The blonde looked at him with a glow of supreme excitement in his eyes that Squall knew he should probably be very fearful of. He nodded slowly as Zell threw an uppercut punch into the air and grinned boyishly.

"Hey, come on, let's talk," Zell said, hopping up and down in his seat and staring at Squall intensely. "Senor Ifrit is the bomb! He's letting us just talk all class long!"

"It's...great," Squall said with a half-hearted little smile, still trying to recover from the gloom of Mr. Diablos' class. Soon enough, however, a different emotion had squirmed into him.

The chem. lab was not the standard white and black environment, but an unconventional explosion of red hues. The ground was an earth-colored tile of sorts, and the walls were painted almost like flames, licking up to the ceiling, which was painted black with little flickers of the burning red color spotted about it. It was ridiculously idiosyncratic. Absolutely strange.

And the whole redness of the room was making him rather...angry.

"That was sexual harassment, wasn't it?" He frowned and looked at Zell, who seemed to be hanging onto his every word, "It was. Harassment, I mean. That bastard's really got it coming to him. You saw it, too. I should go punch him again. Yeah, I should..." He narrowed silver-blue eyes and looked around the room, spotting Irvine in the corner chatting with Seifer and someone else, who was blocked from view.

Pure blue eyes blinked rather stupidly and a crooked grin crept up the blonde's lips.

"What's got into you?" he asked with a chuckle, and Squall blinked, his frown lessening somewhat. If this was the first day, only, then how in hell fire was he going to keep himself in tact through all these crazily eccentric classrooms for a year? He had not a single good teacher. Not one.

Madame Shiva, the overly blue ice queen; Edea, creepy gothic ruler of hell; Instructor Trepe, the whiny bitch-

'_Calm down_,' Squall told himself, frowning and closing his eyes for a moment.

Don't let the redness get to you. _I will not let the redness get to me._

His anger was calmed for the time being. He was mildly surprised that their teacher wasn't a very angry person. Didn't his whole environment make him feel overwhelmingly mad?

"Soooo..." Zell wore a cryptic little grin and poked Squall in the side, causing the brunette to flinch a little, "I missed yah at lunch..."

A guilty expression flew onto Squall's face, and he frowned to cover it quickly.

"Yeah..." he said, quiet voice just barely reaching the blonde's ears, "I...was held up."

The crested blonde gave him a bit of a dubious expression, but not obvious enough for Squall to notice. He turned back in his seat, quieted; he didn't feel he should push his luck any further. Just being acknowledged by such a gorgeous-

_Ack!_ He chided himself, _She's just a friend! Just a friend!_

Besides, he figured, it was only the first day. Usually the pretty new kids would find loserish friends and as soon as they were accepted as a regular part of society, the popular kids would always take them in-if they were hot, of course. Which Squall was. Totally hot. Very, undeniably-

Zell blinked, eyes darkened slightly. He chewed on his lip and glanced over at the brunette, who was sitting in a rather awkward position; not bent very forward to show off a flat stomach or with a straight back to show off a shapely figure like most girls Zell knew; Squall was sitting kind of stiffly, arms at his sides the way one would to hide something. And the brunette kept crossing and uncrossing bare calves. Why was Squall doing that so much, anyway?

"You...feeling alright?" Zell started tentatively, and silver-blue eyes flew to meet his gaze almost too quickly. A worried storm ran in them, and suddenly the brunette relaxed. The blonde's eyes widened incrementally.

"I'm--...yeah." Squall offered him another half-hearted smile.

"You just seemed a little out of it there...back ache or something?" The blonde cocked his head, perhaps to indicate an innocent inquisition. Squall frowned and fidgeted a bit.

"Am I sitting weird?" The brunette asked at length, frowning slightly and lips tightened. He couldn't start to look un-girlish now...he was almost through his first day!

Zell chuckled and scratched his face over the black crest, and the brunette was only mildly surprised that it didn't come off. So maybe it was a tattoo? It was difficult to tell. Then again, it really didn't matter...it was one of those frivolous things that Squall sometimes found himself obsessing over. He decided not to let himself think about it too much.

"Nah, you're--AGH!"

Blue eyes frosted with silver, snapped up immediately and his head spun to the blonde. There was a large, shapely hand that grasped painfully onto his spiky blonde hair, forced with a tight grip, and Zell was wincing. The gloved hand led to a long arm, up around a broad shoulder and large neck, to a horrifically smug face.

"So what makes you so special, chick-o?" Irvine leaned down, intimidating, and never let his fierce grip go off Zell's hair. "I don't think she really wants to be around the likes of _you_."

Zell's one eye was still shut and his face was strained, facing up as Irvine tugged him a little harder. Squall watched this, stupefied. Wasn't the blonde going to say anything?

"Hey. Let go of him," the brunette said, tone inflection indicating he was not amused, and wanted this to stop. Crystal blue eyes slowly came up to meet the stormy blue-silver eyes, sparking dangerously with electric ice. Irvine blinked.

"Damn, honey," he breathed, slightly wide-eyed, "If those ain't the loveliest eyes I've ever seen."

"Nghh..." Zell grunted, and Squall narrowed his eyes at the cowboy.

"Really got some expressive eyes, don't ya..." Irvine grinned crookedly, tugging Zell's hair just a bit more, but not moving his gaze from Squall's, "I wonder what they'll look like during sex-"

"_Let him go_." Squall hissed, face growing incredibly hot with a furious blush. The auburn-haired cowboy smirked and complied, dropping his painfully tight hold on Zell's head in one movement, and the blonde's face was slightly pink. He coughed slightly and gave Squall a glance that could either have been interpreted as apologetic or appreciative.

Irvine now leaned over Zell, coming closer to Squall. There was actually a small bruise on the cowboy's whittled cheek from where Squall had, surprisingly enough, landed a left hook on him in Math. He pursed his lips and glanced up at the brunette.

"Hold out your hand, honey," he said. Squall glared at him.

"No."

"I'm not leaving until you do," the auburn-haired cowboy's thin lips twisted up into a wry grin. Squall only glared at him for a while, and, seeing that he was serious, narrowed his eyes and held out his hand.

"Happy?"

Irvine's grin turned into a smirk. One of the cowboy's gloved hands came out from his pocket and he dropped something into Squall's hand. The brunette's delicate nose crinkled slightly. A screw?

"What?" He mumbled, giving the auburn-haired cowboy a dirty look. Irvine's smirk stayed firmly in place.

"Now you owe me a screw, sugar." A malicious spark flew up in his crystal-blue eyes.

Squall's face hardened and he scowled furiously, silver specks in his eyes twisting like icicles.

He could almost feel cowboy's repulsive breath on his skin, and shoved his hand (and the screw) right into Irvine's face, throwing him back. He tripped, but managed not to fall.

Zell watched with curious attentiveness, eyes of immaculate blue widened almost childishly. Squall glanced at him and he looked away meekly.

"Well, fine," Irvine, looking a little miffed, rubbed the bridge of his nose and smiled somewhat darkly at the brunette, "I guess y'all couldn't recognize a good man if it hit you in the face."

Silver-blue narrowed and a humorless, sardonic smile barely fixed his pouty lips.

"And obviously you wouldn't recognize rejection if it hit you in the face," he said in a low voice, "_twice_."

Zell nearly screamed in glee. Well, it wasn't often that he saw Irvine Kinneas get his ass owned by a hot chick. Not often, at all. Especially not one as incredibly hot as-

_Dammit!_ He screeched to himself. _Stop doing that!_

Irvine looked slightly vexed then he shot back one last smirk before turning to walk back to Seifer and whoever was talking to Seifer in the corner, with the remark, "I'm looking forward to our next meeting, honey."

-o-0-o-

"Silly cowboy, Squall isn't like that!" Moderately long, soft hair was pushed gently out of beautiful sloe eyes, and Rinoa smiled slightly, leaning against the back wall where she had just been making idle chatter with Seifer.

Irvine frowned. "What do mean, 'Squall isn't like that?' And how do you know her?" He looked a little irked from before.

Seifer and the cowboy both watched her intently for an answer. She found herself at a loss for words for just a moment then used her number one tool for success in an awkward situation: The Rinoa Smile of Utter Cuteness.

"Gosh, I dunno what I meant," she said with a little giggle, batting her lashes just a little too obviously. "But that's my sister, didn't Sei tell you?"

Irvine blinked rapidly now, a genuinely interested look in crystal-blue eyes. "Your sister?"

"Yeah-huh!" She nodded vigorously, grinning cutely, and looking extremely childlike.

Seifer chuckled at her quietly, and a small smirk crept up the auburn-haired cowboy's lips.

"Say, uh..." he paused, indicating for her to give her name.

"Rinoa," she said with a tiny nod, staring at him to go on.

"Rinoa," Irvine continued, smirk growing slightly, and the blonde's jade-green eyes considered him listlessly, somehow knowing what was coming next, "there's a first-day-back party going on tonight at Almasy's place-"

"I'd LOVE to come!" The brunette said with a little jump and widened eyes. Irvine chuckled and Seifer narrowed his eyes at the cowboy, slightly annoyed. However, he took on his dazzling Man-smile again before Rinoa could notice.

"Don't forget to bring your sister, honey," the cowboy said suggestively, leaning forward to gently caress Rinoa's cheek. She withdrew a little and offered a small smile, then a bright one once she was out of Irvine's touch.

"Duhhh, I'd never forget her!" She said, chipper as ever, "I just love her. We're like, joined at the hip!" She touched her mouth and giggled. Seifer raised an eyebrow at the sloe-eyed girl.

"Yes, I can see that," he said, careful to hide the sarcasm just so that someone more intelligent might catch on. Squall was just about as far away as he could have gotten from Rinoa at that moment that would have been possible without him getting marked absent for class.

"Gosh, it's so great to meet such nice people," she said with a long, happy sigh, bouncing her back against the wall slightly and smiling brightly. "Don't say I said this, but Squall really had terrible luck making friends at all our old schools. He got beat up and stuff..." her face took on a bit of a sad expression.

One could say Seifer was a bit slow, but not completely dull.

"Wait...what 'Squall' are we talking about?" The blonde asked at length, and Irvine seemed to be in agreement with the inquiry.

Rinoa blinked, and her eyes suddenly showed a stronger awareness. She frowned.

"I...wait, never mind. There's only one Squall," she said quietly.

"You said 'he' got beat up," Seifer reminded, narrowing candy-green eyes in a slight contemplative frown. "What 'he' were you talking about?"

Irvine's crystal-blue eyes widened slightly more, as he obviously found the conversation very taking. Rinoa looked like a criminal caught red-handed, for some reason. She glanced away.

"Seriously..." she said quietly, sounding a bit disheartened, "It was a mistake. I'm kind of out of it today," she tried, offering a little smile as reassurance.

Seifer leaned back and folded his arms, narrowing electric green eyes and then sighing and shaking it off.

"Yeah, guess you are," he said. Irvine nodded slowly.

-o-0-o-

"No."

"What? Come on, pleaaaase? It'll be fun!"

"No."

"Pretty please with tuna on top?"

"No."

"Poo-weeeeeeese? Squalleeeeee?"

"..."

"Wah! Is that a yes?"

"...No."

Exasperated. Rinoa unwrapped her arms from around her step-brother's shoulders and plopped down on the couch with a big pout. Squall folded his arms over his chest and looked as big-brotherly as he could, considering that he was wearing a skirt and his eyes were lined.

"Rinoa," he said sternly; a strange sound when coming from his soft voice, "Monday night is not the night to be partying. I can't even believe you're going..."

Rinoa huffed and waved him off. "Aw Squall, every night is a party night! I can't believe you're NOT going!"

"I don't need to make myself look any more idiotic," he mumbled with a dark frown. His step-sister giggled and stood up, brushing herself off in a dazzling outfit: dark, seductive red color of stretchy tube top and black jeans.

"Honestly, now," she said, wagging a finger at him jokingly, "the crowd just loved you. I told you that you looked good, bro, and I mean it! Come on, it's not like you have anything else to do."

Squall looked up at her with that same frown. "Zell offered to show me downtown Balamb with his friend tonight."

Rinoa's dark eyes widened comically. "Rapists!" She yelped with a little grin. Squall scowled.

"Somehow, I doubt that," he mumbled and folded his arms protectively over his chest. She chuckled and shook her head to herself. His silver-blue gaze rose to watch her carefully before the brunette spoke.

"Just don't get in trouble," he said sternly.

"Gotcha!" She raised her hand to the side of her head and saluted him.

"Don't get wasted," he added.

"Sure thing!"

"Don't dance too close to anyone you don't know."

"...Right-o."

"If anyone asks, your name is Martha Stewart."

"..._Martha Stewart?"_

"And don't take any suspicious substances from-"

"Gee whiz!" Rinoa threw her arms up and sighed, rolling her dark eyes. "I get the picture!"

Squall sighed to himself, shrugging and looking down at his feet. The dark-haired young woman grinned and put her hands on her hips.

"What's wrong?" she asked, grin wide.

"You grew up fast," he said with a little smile, and she laughed out loud, hugging her step-brother tightly.

"Let's not forget who the older one here is." She grinned coyly up at him.

"Still..." the brunette frowned, looking slightly indecisive, "You keep calling me 'big bro;' you're practically giving me the right."

"Maybe I meant 'big' in a different way," Rinoa suggested, raising a dark eyebrow with a strange glint in her eye. Squall buried his face in his hands with a stifled laugh.

"Just leave before I start to cry," he said quietly, hiding his smile under his hands. Rinoa laughed aloud again.

"I hope you're _joking_!" She said with her cute grin, bending over tauntingly.

"I am, I am. Get the hell out already!" He gently pushed the hysterically giggling girl out the door, laughing as well and shutting the door quickly. He sighed with a smile, sliding down against the door and letting out a quiet chuckle, shaking his head to himself.

Now, he had to think of something to wear for the evening...maybe Rinoa's closet, he thought to himself with disdain, because she owned more pants than he did (since all of his were discarded so kindly.) Did she ever consider that girls wear pants, too, when she threw away all of his pants?

He sighed.

-o-0-o-

"Damn, Zelly, she's hot!"

The blonde blushed furiously and flailed for a split-second, pure-blue eyes wide as he gave Raijin the "ix-nay" look. Squall raised an eyebrow and frowned slightly at the massive hulk that was Zell's friend. He looked more like a bodyguard.

"Uh-"

"D-Don't mind Raijin! He's just a little slow, is all; he's really a great guy." Zell looked frantic, as if he was worried Squall would go psycho on his ass. This thought frustrated the brunette slightly. But only slightly.

"It's fine," Squall shrugged. He had managed to get into one of Rinoa's pants (as in, he was _wearing _them, you fool,) though they were all quite so tight! It was not a low-rider, so it worked when he pulled it so low that the hem rode very low, just to give him some comfortable room in the jeans' crotch. He had to wear a skirt over the jeans because of this, but his slim, non-existent hips made this task not too difficult. It was...an odd style, to say the least, but at least he didn't have his legs out in the open like before. He also, thank the gods out there, was able to wear his normal boots, though they did seem to highlight the outfit in a peculiar fashion.

Not that he really cared.

"Okay, then!" Zell grinned boyishly. "Looking great, Squall!" And his smile fell a bit. "N-Not that I was really looking, but, you know, it's hard not to sometimes--"

"It's _fine_," Squall repeated with a little smile. Zell nodded, slightly embarrassed. Happy Raijin was attempting to count the hairs on his hand and was failing quite consistently.

"Mm-hrmm..." the crested blonde cleared his throat. "You need to be home by when?" Blue eyes glanced up inquisitively at the brunette, and Squall stopped a moment to consider himself.

"Actually...it doesn't really matter. Whenever," Squall shrugged. "No curfew."

"Sweet," Raijin's low voice was almost like an earthquake whenever Squall heard it. It was difficult to ignore that low rumbling sound, and suffice it to say it was quite annoying.

Zell continued, letting the slightly shorter brunette step outside and lock the door behind him. "Well, then, we've got plenty of time to do stuff. Let's grab a bite and then Rai and me'll show you the city. It's so awesome at night! You'll love it."

"Sounds cool," Squall nodded, considerably more comfortable with denim protecting his legs.

"Lots of pretty lights, they go with the pretty girl, ya know." Rai added with a thuggish grin toward the brunette.

Zell and Squall looked at him and sighed quietly.

-o-0-o-

"Whoa..." Squall mumbled to himself. It was dark, and their motley little crew had just gotten out of a pizza parlor, a particularly delicious one, at that. It was dark but the moon wasn't visible quite yet; a star or two were up and indicated the coming of winter; days were getting shorter. The weather was beautiful, just like everything else about the gigantic city of Balamb. Huge towers were in the near distance and a beautiful harbor overlooking the ocean with a peninsula-type structure stretching out into the ocean with entertainment, shopping centres, and a Ferris wheel. Evening tour boats drifted along the dark shoreline, and romanticizing couples sat together on the edge of the pier, enjoying the warm ocean breeze. Everything about the city was fantastic.

Zell watched the brunette's expression with a wide grin. Yes, that was generally the reaction that new kids or visitors had when first seeing the city at night; considerably more beautiful than the city during the day, when businessmen were all working about. The evening was what Balamb was all about: piano bars and jazz clubs, strolling in the streets with the always beautiful weather, romantic sea-side rendezvous, buying cinnamon-sugar almonds and eating them at the top of the Ferris Wheel while looking down on the lights and the happy bustle...

"HOLY...! Zelly! We should buy that red clock, ya know!"

Squall and the blonde stopped, turning to stare at Raijin strangely. Zell rolled his eyes slightly. Yeah, Raijin, totally ruin the mood, why don't you?

There was so much going on, Squall almost felt dizzy. This had to be five hundred times better than going to some stupid party with stupid partying children.

They ended up just walking into random shops (mostly at Raijin's whim) but purchasing nothing for the salvation of meagerness.

There were a few things that Squall saw, however, that he felt an itchy gut feeling of extreme desire for. One thing was in the glass counter display of a rather occult, but strangely well-kept shop: a silver chain, well-secured, with a pendant at the bottom. The pendant was something that resembled the profile of a lion, with a cross from the bottom. It was the epitome of elegance...

Silver-blue eyes widened as he looked down at the tag. That was...a very...very...large number. He frowned and reluctantly turned to look at other things...cheaper things. He couldn't afford luxuries like that. Zell didn't miss Squall's longing look, however; and he also didn't miss the price tag. Sky-blue eyes widened as well.

_Oh well_, he sighed.

The other thing that Squall saw was a poster on one of the many well-established theatre institutions. Ah, theatre: art in itself. If Squall had more talent, he would have immediately joined a Thespian society...unfortunately, his talent was in dancing. Not that it was something he regretted, but to be skilled at dancing and acting...

Well, everyone has a right to dream.

In any case, he saw the poster for the play "La Boeme," something he'd read about when he was a bit younger and had always wanted to see. He frowned slightly. The performances didn't start for another two months. Honestly, why did they insist on torturing him so with these two-months-prior posters? At least, he figured, he'd be able to pay to see this. If he got a part-time job immediately and worked hard, that is. Caraway's and Laguna's child-support was only enough for them to make a meager living (when deducing the costs of Rinoa's high-maintenance lifestyle.)

But he would never ask Rinoa to stop buying clothes and whatever it was that made her happy. Because that's what he wanted for her...happiness and ease of living. He owed her and Julia that much, at the very least.

_I..._

_...I don't understand._

_Daddy? What's going on?_

'_Devil child! Now you'll ruin more people's lives! You're happy about it, aren't you!' Dark eyes...Malice. Anger._

_Sobs...Fear and confusion._

_What did I do? Daddy?_

'_Shh, honey...don't make this any harder for him...' Pale Blue...Pity. Regret. And...Love?_

_No...I don't think so..._

"...all."

"Squall...?"

"SQUALL!"

"Ah!" The brunette jumped slightly, hitting his head against the wall and grunting, looking up at the panicky Zell, who was watching him with concern.

"What happened? You went all..." he made a strange gesture that Squall couldn't really comprehend.

"I-...sorry," Squall mumbled, rubbing his forehead. Zell didn't take this as a very good answer, obviously.

"You sure you're okay?" The crested blonde asked, resisting the urge to put a hand on the brunette's shoulder. And what a strong urge it was. Good thing he had learned very good aspects of self-control.

Squall only wore a brooding frown and rubbed his sore shoulder some. With one last glance at the "La Boeme" poster, he made to walk briskly away, the bewildered Zell and happily oblivious Raijin close behind.

-o-0-o-

HONK.

HONK, HONK.

Silver-blue eyes immediately fell upon the source of the obstrusive sound. It was well into the evening, about 10 PM, and the city of Balamb was ever-beautiful and ever-bustling. Squall hadn't even begun to feel tired, and, after getting over a little bit of a "mood," he had really been having a good time watching Zell and Raijin make complete fools of themselves, singing and dancing to the street performance music, and chattering blithely about this-or-that. Squall, for the most part, had remained silent, but not without a small smile on his lips as he listened to the two go on about nothing in particular under the glowing moon.

But then, there was honking. The brunette narrowed subtly-lined eyes and tried to see who was in the black convertible, honking their ears off. Before he could make out who was the driver, the car came to a parking space along the sidewalk near Squall, Zell, and Raijin, and, with one last honk, parked and hopped out.

"Hey!" Mister honky jogged over to them with those dark, perpetually laughing eyes glimmering pleasantly. Zell raised a blonde, somewhat cut off eyebrow at the lithe-bodied young man, and Squall blinked.

"Hi..." he said quietly. Pure blue eyes narrowed on Zell's face; the blonde recognized him as the other who had offered Squall a walk during school. His expression almost switched to "No Touchie!" but he held that more protective aspect of himself back, knowing that the brunette probably wouldn't appreciate it.

"Squall, it's wonderful to see you again so soon," Kiros said, smiling so warmly that Raijin (yes, Raijin) felt his insides melt into a puddle of goo. Zell was ignoring it well, and Squall was only just so indifferent as to evade the exploding friendliness.

"Yeah," the brunette agreed, though not openly so. The crested blonde frowned slightly, going opposite of Kiros' expression; somehow, his smile grew. If that smile ever happened to fall, none of the other ever caught it in its doing so. It was a bit of an eerie thing about the kindly boy, in all honesty.

"I take it these two are showing you around Balamb tonight," Kiros said with that endless undertone of complete fascination with life in general. Squall and Zell both nodded; the blonde more vigorously than Squall. The skinny dark-skinned young man grinned and folded his arms contemplatively, turning his hip out in one direction as if pondering something.

"Actually, I saw you guys a bit earlier," Kiros admitted with a bit of a guilty smile, "and I noticed you hanging around the theatre district..."

The brunette blinked those beautiful blue eyes, dotted with silver and looking very much like the starry night sky right above them. His slim fingers rose to delicately brush messily styled thin locks of brown, looking nearly black in the eve's moonlight, out of his face, and nodded. Zell had to force himself to look away and Raijin chuckled dumbly.

"Theatre..." Squall repeated, somewhat absently, and then he blinked again and nodded, watching Kiros with immaculate interest. "I was looking at some of the plays."

"Well I, for one, think its wonderful," Kiros replied with that warm smile widening just an increment, "that our generation has such tasteful young ladies in it. My dad gets really fantastic seats for the opera house and symphony orchestra a lot. If you appreciate the fine arts as much as it seems, you know, I'd more than gladly take you to see them anytime."

The angelic-eyed brunette looked down at his boots and then looked back into smiling sloe-eyes. A small smile crept up onto Squall's lips.

"Sounds great," he said quietly, genuinely excited about this opportunity. He was such a sucker for operas and symphonies. Of course, he also wasn't given the chance to see them too often.

Zell frowned and looked away, blue eyes a dangerous dark shade as he glared at his feet. Raijin gave a low whistle and laughed stupidly again.

And would this ever have happened, had they known he was a guy? Doubtfully. This was somewhat depressing to Squall.

"Well, I guess if that's all, you'd better get back to your business," Zell said, almost a bit too suggestively, hoping that Kiros had something else he was attending to that he had just forgotten about. Apparently, this either wasn't the case, or Kiros would rather blow it off to hang out with Squall. The skinny, dark-skinned young man smiled.

"Actually, I was just on my way to a little jazz club downtown," Kiros said, lifting an idle finger up and leaning in a bit, glancing at Squall. "Interested?"

"Jazz..." the brunette smiled a bit. A smile can say a thousand words.

"I've been there a couple of times," the other young man continued in a sunny tone, "it's actually not very well-known, so you won't have a lot of people in there. It's more of a cult thing; hard to come across it without being referenced. So far, though, the performances have been great."

"Oh..." Silver sparked over blue eyes as if electrified and the brunette leaned in. "Yes." He said it with an odd emphasis, an inflection that openly communicated his un-talkative nature but intense interest.

"Fantastic," Kiros said, smile growing ever slightly, "it's not far from here. Let's go."

Squall followed Kiros closely, soon walking at the dark-skinned young man's side. Zell and Raijin found themselves slightly left out, and the blonde's frown had neglected to go away.

"This wasn't the plan, ya know," Raijin observed, ever the smart one, though no particular emotion was held to his words.

Zell grunted slightly and wore a humorless smile.

"Yeah," the blond said dryly, "I know."

-o-0-o-

"Here it is. It's higher-class than the building lets on," Kiros added with a chuckle at Squall's dubious expression, holding the door open for the pale-skinned brunette.

There was a very, very low din of a very meager amount of people chatting quietly in the rather small little club. Dim lights subtly hung on the walls, distributed unevenly and creating a rather unreal lighting that seemed to be particular to this type of place. Nobody was on the lonely stage, and Squall watched the empty platform curiously as he lowered himself into a seat.

Zell and Raijin sat across from him, as Kiros was already seated at his side.

"It's a pretty cool place," Kiros started, trying to break into conversation. Zell was still looking a little caught up over some issue, Raijin was busy counting the lights, and Squall only nodded in a bit of a shy agreement.

Well, it wasn't often that he went to specialty music clubs. It was still a relatively new experience for him, especially at night without his mom or Rinoa. As cheesy as it sounded...he'd only been to the piano bar where his and Rinoa's single mom made a living. He smiled slightly, recalling the beautiful songs that their mother sang, as he and Rinoa, young teenagers at the time, would sit on the little bar's red couch, mesmerized and sometimes lulled to sleep by her angelic voice.

There was a song she had written herself, in expressing her undying love for someone who never really cared for her more than her body...

Squall frowned a little. Love...It was anyone's greatest weakness and undoing. And just the thought of her, singing her love song; so beautiful that Squall whole-heartedly had believed nobody deserved from his mother, made him just angry. How...despicable. How could any man be so horrible?

"Hey, do want a drink?" Kiros asked, interrupting the rising licks of anger in Squall's stomach with a relatively innocent inquiry. The brunette, however, only looked at him dubiously. Zell was giving Kiros a dangerous look that went unnoticed by the skinny young man, and Raijin was still counting lights.

"I don't drink," Squall mumbled, slightly put off by the offer. Kiros seemed a bit confused, then blinked and laughed quietly.

"I meant to ask if you wanted water or soda, or something," the dark-skinned young man said with his wide grin, and the brunette relaxed a bit, opening his mouth to reply, when suddenly the dim lights focused to the stage for a moment and then dimmed even more. He turned his head, attention stolen, and watched curiously as a low voice came out of some hidden speakers to address the meager audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's wonderful to have you all here tonight," an impossibly low voice came over the speakers. "Tonight, as scheduled on our program, we have the most soulful of the soulful; the true rising star of saxophone. Performing for you...Balamb's own Ryan Griffin."

All eyes were on the stage, as this Ryan came out, saxophone strapped to broad shoulders. The lights were dim...too dim to see...

But as the saxophonist began playing, music that held such an innately true aesthetic soul and captured the attention of everyone immediately...

...The lights became bright enough to reveal honey-gold hair, an unmistakable angled face and eyes, so intense, so alive, so involved in his music and so...

...So impossibly, unmistakably, jade green.

**-o-0-o-**

XD OKAAAAY...Who saw THAT one coming from a mile away? Betcha you did! XD Aha, I'm so predictable.

I'm already working on chapter 7, so it won't take me as long for it, I promise. I was originally going to put a lot more into this chapter, but I figured I needed to spread it out a bit more. Interesting things will happen, believe-a you me. And don't think I'm going to go ahead and have that party at Sei's house happen without writing about it! Just you review, and you'll get more soon. (Yes, I intentionally pulled Sei away from his own party. So don't mark me for inconsistency!)

...wtf...did anybody get this whole family-thing? I mean, its seriously vague...I didn't even describe it...but that's how I intended it...just saying the whole story would be pretty boring, agree?

! Balamb is Chicago, mates! XD God, when we went on our Choire trip there, it was so damned beautiful. Chicago is the perfect city. Fuck California, Fuck it all! Chicago is the place to be, mates. It's just...inspiring. Perfect place for a musician, too. XD OMFG. Kiros...it looks like he's trying to charm Squall, doesn't it? Please, just believe me. There are no ulterior motives. When Kiros says something, everything he is implying is right in his words, period. Honestly! He just thinks its cool to meet someone who's into the arts, he's not trying to hit on Squall. XD

Don't you love that little scene between Squall and Rinoa? X.X Even though I would never pair them romantically; as siblings I think they're just so adorable. Oh, and...don't kill me for making Squall laugh! He laughs, just like everyone else! Nobody is capable of not laughing D: That would be foolish. OMG...Raijin is so dumb o.x


	7. So He Crashes Parties

Sorry this took longer than I expected, but, you see, my gods-damn computer erased the whole chapter RIGHT when I was finishing it.

/very, very, very, VERY angry look./

..you have no idea how hard I push myself to write this stuff...

and then the computer just up and DELETES IT

Ok, i'm done complaining...better start cracking. And, since I have to re-write, don't blame me if this turns out badly...something tells me i'll be up all night for this... /very angry look and a sigh/

(To my reviewers: I love you all more than anything, and Iwrote this 11797 word chapter all over again, just because I love you all so much! So please, keep reviewing: it inspires me so.)

Forgive me...this chapter is mostly very slow romantic-wise, but it might get better for you near the end at the "Almasy's piano room" scene...Wark. :U And omg, dear volian, your wish for a kiss JUST might come true...Just don't get your hopes up fluff-wise, because I generally don't write a lot of fluff unless it's a one-shot. I just don't work that way D:

_

* * *

_

_"Narcissus erat iuvenis formosus et superbus. Putabat se formosissimum esse. Quamquam multae iuvenem amaverant, tamen Narcissus neminem praeter se amabat."_

_Narcissus was a shapely and beautiful youth. He thought that he was most handsome. Although many loved the youth, nevertheless, Narcissus loved nobody but himself._

-Ovid

* * *

**Dancing in Drag**

**Chapter 7: So He Crashes Parties**

"What do you mean, Squeifer isn't here?"

Irritated cobalt-blue eyes burned against wide dark-brown ones.

"Why isn't Seifer at his own party?" Rinoa demanded, a pouty look on her youthful face.

"First you tell me why Squall isn't here," Irvine said, folding his arms across his chest and tapping his foot, an impatient frown stretching his face.

"He didn't want to come!" They both said with a sigh. Rinoa pouted more and Irvine chuckled.

"This is no good," she said with a little whine. Then she glanced sharply at the cowboy; "And just why do you care where Squall is? Don't even think about it, coz she's _waaay_ out of your league."

The auburn-haired young man cocked his head, bemused. "Well. You shoulda known by now that Kinneas plays in all leagues."

"Think what you want," the dark-eyes girl retorted with a little grin, "but Squall's league is way off-limits to you. And now that I think about it, so is mine." She giggled, and a slightly irritated look sparked in crystal-blue eyes.

"Sugar, if you're gonna insult me, ya can't be doin' it with the giggling..." He leaned in and smirked. "You should really try to be more like your sis..."

Rinoa blinked at him.

"Well, its no use just sitting around here mopin' about our bad luck," he said in a lighter tone. "I'll go get us some beers."

She watched his retreating back with somewhat of a dark expression on her face.

"He told me..." She huffed and crossed her arms. "He told me to be more like...? Ohh, just you wait, I'll tell Squall how mean you are, and he'll make cowboy jerky outta you," she mumbled with a falsely malicious little grin. Her face returned to its cheerful smile when Irvine returned through the crowded mass of teenagers, holding two beers in one hand.

"Here ya'are," the cowboy grinned, handing Rinoa a bottle of beer labeled "Styrska Breweries, Co." Her eyes widened just a bit as she recalled the time when she and Squall lived in the mountains of Trabia. She had gone downtown one of the first evenings they had been there, somehow ending up a district riddled with a diverse supply of breweries. She had found out that evening that Trabia was famous for its street of breweries. Of course, she hadn't ventured out there very often after that time, because even a party-crazy teenager will refrain from going to places that serve beer, for the mass of gritty old men that made up the majority of the brewery-going population. She recalled, however, passing a very large company called "Styrska Breweries, Co.," which she had found out later was the biggest brewer in much of the land. They were famous for their flavorful beer.

And they were also famous for their slogan, though it wasn't nearly as flavorful.

_Styrska...Trabian for "Beer!"_

Ugh. Honestly, _Trabian for "Beer?" _What was "Trabian" anyway? Did Trabia even have their own language, or what?

Doubtfully.

"Imported from Trabia?" Rinoa finally asked, and Irvine gave her a curious look, downing a mouthful of the stuff at the same time.

"Sure is, honey. How did you know?"

"I used to live there," she explained. He nodded, looking understanding, and she looked down at her full bottle dubiously as Irvine took another, smaller sip. He didn't fail to notice her action, though.

"Go ahead, down it," the cowboy pressed, and the dark-haired girl glanced up at him doubtfully. "It's damned good, honest. If it's one thing you can count on from Seifer's folks, it's that everything in their house is the best of its kind."

_'Including Seifer,' _Rinoa thought with a suppressed little smile.

"Hm...what do Sei's parents do, anyway?" She asked, finally taking a cautious sip of the beer and noting that, as a matter of fact, it did not taste too wonderful.

"Actually, I don't know," the auburn-haired young man took another mouthful of beer and sloshed it about his mouth, looking up thoughtfully, "All I know about 'em is they're crazy rich. Though, I mighta heard once from my old man that they do some shady business around here..."

"Shady business?" Rinoa's delicate dark brows rose slowly. "Care to elaborate?" Irvine chuckled.

"If I knew any more, I would," he said, narrow grin stretching his face. "But I ain't the type to think too hard on this stuff. Come on, sugar, let's find a couch to sit on..."

She frowned a bit.

"Well..." she hesistated. "...Okay. I guess that's fine. There doesn't seem to be any room on the dance floor, anyway." She smiled at him. Well, there really wasn't much else to do.

"You know, I think we'll get along just fine without Almasy and your sis," Irvine remarked with a wry grin.

She followed him through the crowd, to what she could only assume was going to be a couch. The dark-haired girl sighed, thoughts moving quickly from Irvine to Seifer.

_'Why isn't he here?'_

-o-0-o-

Mindless-

He didn't fully understand, but something he knew about music was...as opposed to science, or religion, a full understand wasn't necessary at all; in fact, it was almost undesired.

Aimless-

What kind of effect could a sound have on the mind? Soft or strong, peaceful or powerful; everywhere between one extreme to the other, no matter where, stimulates the human mind to a uniquely determined degree. Loud noises stimulate passionate emotions; the gentle caress of soft sound calms the mind to peace.

And this sound, this...music...brought from one point between passion and peace, stimulated...

Euphoria. Rapture. Intoxication.

That was the only and _only_ explanation he could find for him not getting up and leaving immediately at the first sight of Seifer. That damned blonde and his music...

From the moment the blonde had started to play that saxophone, Squall told himself he'd just stay for a moment to listen. And soon, that moment became a bit longer. A bit longer yet after that. And finally, the hapless brunette gave into his whim and gave up on his reservations and self-arguing to simply enjoy the music the way Seifer had no doubt intended it to be. Eyelids flickered down over placid silver-blue eyes to heighten the floating sensation that he got from the smooth notes seeping into his ears and burning into his mind. Of course, such an obvious physical display of his captivity to the music couldn't have been a wonderful idea, but to fully appreciate the music the way it was intended, physical reservations were out of the question, period.

Besides, it wasn't as if Seifer even knew he was there. He could tell by the song, that the blonde was far too into his own performance. The true performer has only to be wary of one stage: his own mind. Squall could relate to this, as well: his feeling when connecting with his dance and the music in dance had to be similar to the connection right then of Seifer and his instrument.

Now, leaning back in his seat a little, Squall was hanging onto every note and letting go of each at just the right time to make the music just a bit more involved. Well, what could he say? He was a true appreciator.

"Oh gods...that's _Seifer_, isn't it?"

Delicate brown eyebrow twitched downward as his musical rapture was abruptly shattered by Zell's voice. Still rendered unable to compose coherent words, Squall sent an irked glance in the blonde's direction, careful to be quick enough so that he wouldn't see. Of course, the fact that Zell had broken his spell made him irritated, but he was still trying to avoid the gush of insecurities that would surely come from the blonde if he had seen Squall's look.

"It is," Kiros said. "And naturally you still have some hostility toward him, but next time, please try to be more considerate. Squall was really enjoying that. And, honestly, so was I."

Zell's eyes, darkened by the dim environment, narrowed as he looked down, an expression reaching his face that actually resembled somewhat of a mature look. Squall watched curiously, but remained silent.

"Sorry..." he mumbled, glaring at his thigh, "I just thought Squall doesn't like him..."

"I don't," Squall reassured the other quickly, "but he plays really well."

The crested blonde lifted cerulean eyes to lock with Squall's gaze, and he found himself drowning in a stifling cloud of metallic blue. Reluctantly, Zell tore his gaze away and frowned at his hands in his lap. His heart was pounding, and it was...

Mostly, it was anger. Why did Seifer have to be so good at sax? The fact that Squall didn't seem to loathe Seifer with every fibre of his being, made Zell...well, it was a torrent of negative emotion in his gut. Zell, for one, detested the other broad-shouldered, green-eyed young man.

He had always hated Seifer Almasy. Always. So much so and with such passion, that he didn't really even seem to need a reason.

But there was a reason. There had always been one. And...to be honest, it had nothing to do with Squall. It never had.

The three others were watching Zell with somewhat questioning looks on their faces, and they missed the point when Seifer's song stopped for the 1-minute interlude for preparations that left ample time for the honest but restrained clapping (for, in a small, out-of-the-way little club like this, even a wonderful performace will not constitute cheering and vigorous laudation.)

"Seifer...? Hey! His friend Fujin really likes me, ya know," Raijin interrupted the peaceful silence with his important input. Kiros smiled at him.

"That's wonderful to hear," the smiling boy said, albeit a little flatly. Zell rolled his eyes and leaned his chin on his hands, while Squall turned his attention back to the stage where Seifer was starting up again.

The saxophone and small bit of accompaniment created a lifting feeling again, almost blurring the room to the listeners.

"Gods..." Squall said, mostly to himself, "he's amazing..." Silver-blue eyes widened slightly as he tried to keep himself from falling asleep under the bewitching sound. Kiros watched him with a secretive type of smile on his face, eyes sparking in just the slightest amusement.

"It's true," Kiros said, smile growing a bit more as he studied Squall's expression, "he's brilliant."

Zell narrowed his eyes. What gave _Kiros_ the right to act like he was on a date with Squall? Somehow, this whole situation was irksome and very disheartening. It was as if he and Raijin were completely cast aside from the whole production.

Not that it even mattered to Raijin; he was attempting to count the lights again.

"Guys, we might want to leave soon..." the blonde said to the others, "you know, so that Seifer doesn't notice us..."

Squall blinked but didn't look away from the stage.

"One more minute," the brunette mumbled off-handedly, still obviously into the performance. Kiros turned to glance at Zell, giving a little chuckle. The crested blonde frowned boyishly.

"What?" he snapped at Kiros, though he did it quietly enough not to anger Squall. Kiros smiled that secretive smile again and turned back to face the stage again.

"Nothing," the dark-skinned young man said through his grin.

Zell sighed and looked up at the dark ceiling, tapping his fingers silently on his lap. Sure, this music was pretty good, but he just didn't see why Squall and Kiros found it so amazing and spectacular. Was there some kind of trick to recognizing good music? He wasn't sure. Maybe his mind was subconsciously blocking out the true amazing qualities of the music because he knew it was Seifer playing. A little frown found his face.

"Actually, we really probably should get going soon," Kiros said at length, and apparently, his statement held more relevance to Squall. The brunette blinked away and looked at the dark young man with a displeased frown, but he nodded slowly.

"Yeah," Squall said, glancing back at Seifer one more time, "it's getting late, anyway."

-o-0-o-

"Where are you guys parked?"

Silver-blue eyes, nearly glowing under the pale moon light, turned as he glanced at Kiros.

"North Seaholm," Zell answered before the brunette could, taking pride in at least having _come_ to Balamb with Squall instead of Kiros. Raijin nodded slowly.

Kiros raised a dark eyebrow at the shorter blonde and that same clean, even smile grew on his face. Ultramarine eyes narrowed just slightly as the blonde smiled back reluctantly. Well, if somebody smiled at you_ that _much, you'd feel obligated to return the favor, too.

"Seaholm street..." Kiros narrowed his eyes in thought. "That's pretty far. I'll drive you there."

The walk back to Kiros' car wasn't very long. It was well into 11 PM, and the city was as lively as ever. Squall could hear live music seeping through door cracks out of various clubs as they walked in the relatively busy city streets. The glow of the moon didn't waver much; in fact, it only seemed to grow stronger as all of Balamb continued to fall deeper into that lost, undetermined space of time between dusk and dawn.

Kiros offered the passenger seat to Squall, holding the door for him and waiting as Zell and Raijin went to the back seat.

Cool wind coursed through the open car windows, even at their low speed. Kiros' hair was tied too tightly to be very affected by the breeze, but Squall's messy hair whipped around his face as loosely as silk drapes on an open window. The brunette had been watching the streets and buildings move past him leisurely, but his gaze stopped when he turned a bit and looked in the side-view mirror.

For a wordless moment, Squall just stared at himself.

_'Is that really me?' _

He couldn't doubt it when the girl in the mirror widened her eyes at the same time he did. Her dark brown hair whisked around her face's thin frame much like his, and her lips twisted into the very same surprised look that he was wearing.

It was eerie.

Much like his, the mirror girl's hair jumped, as did her eyebrows, when Kiros pulled to a stop. Silver-blue eyes, still muddled a bit, turned to glance ahead to see what exactly had happened, when he realized it was only a traffic light. They had stopped behind two cars at a red light, and they were about halfway to Seaholm St.

Sighing soundlessly, Squall leaned one side of his face on his hand, staring absently out the window as they waited for the lengthy red light to turn. Unnatural to the city life, there were actually few noises recognizable as cars except for slow humming and whirring sound of tires on the street; there was no honking or the klunking of old machinery. Only peaceful chatter came from the streets.

"...Leave me _alone_!"

Immediately, the brunette's metallic-blue gaze shot over to the source of the outburst, and, on the corner, he saw a woman trying to pull her wrist from a man's grip. His expression softened somewhat as he studied them off-handedly, until, just as the light was about to turn green, he noticed something about the woman...

_'Instructor Trepe...?' _

His eyes widened somewhat and dark brow raised as he watched who was now obviously Quistis trying to wrest herself away from a rather lofty man with an intimidating frame. Pale, slender fingers grasped lightly against the windowframe of Kiros' car as he leaned forward a bit. He squinted a bit, trying to see the man.

The man hit her across the face, and Squall's mouth fell slightly open as Quistis stumbled back. The man had come into one of the lights by the sidewalk, and had turned in a huff to glare at whomever had been watching-who happened to be Squall-before Kiros started to drive away:

Blond hair and forest-green eyes...

Squall immediately felt his heart drop into his stomach and he looked away, eyes frightfully wide. His hair whipped up again in the breeze that came with Kiros driving again.

Then his expression darkened exceptionally and he glared at his hands. He was new in Balamb and Garden High, after all, and he couldn't assume that he knew everything about what was going on, but...

The brunette shook his head to himself. How could that blonde be so sick? He asked himself. Honestly, though, it wasn't such a "sick" thing...even though hitting a woman is wrong, he should have expected it from someone like Seifer.

He willed away the more honest reasoning to his upset state: his belief that someone who could play music like _that_ couldn't be completely rotten. Seifer was a different person on stage; he even used a different name.

And that hope kept breaking. He told himself, it's useless to try; there isn't any layer to this man. He's just shallow and narcissistic.

What he failed to realize was that, at that same moment, Seifer had never left the club in the first place, and was only just finishing his last performance of the night and getting packed to head home.

But with the same willingness that Squall had to believe that the tall blonde was really a good person, came a more cautious and seemingly realistic belief that he was probably just as he seemed: selfish and horribly insensitive.

-o-0-o-

"Thanks," Squall said quietly, getting out of the car where Zell had stopped in front of his house. They had parted ways with Kiros downtown and Zell had driven Squall home, with Raijin whistling a song about farmers in the back seat.

The blonde glanced at Squall uncertainly as he got out of the passenger seat. He seemed kind of out of it.

"Hey..."

The brunette turned and regarded him with weary silver-blue eyes, waiting silently for Zell to continue instead of making any acknowledging noise.

"Uh..." Zell scratched his face against the dark crest, "Are you alright?"

Squall smiled tiredly at him and nodded slowly.

"Just a little tired," the brunette explained, faking a yawn behind slender fingers. "Thanks for tonight, though. I had a great time."

The crested blonde felt his face grow warm with a pleasant little blush and he nodded, azure eyes narrowing slightly in an adorable grin. Squall laughed quietly and gave him a lazy wave good-bye, and Zell waited for the brunette to go all the way inside before driving off.

Squall wasn't actually very sleepy. He was exhausted, though, and he was about to throw himself down to attempt sleep when he noticed the light on the home phone was blinking. He went over to it and pressed "playback."

_One new message, from Rinoa Cell_

_Beep_

_A-hahaha! H-hey, stop-haha-st-stop it! Ahaha! AAH! AHahHhahAHA...Huh? Oh..h-aHA-STOOOP! Whahaha! Oh..oh! Uhhh...Squall? Hee hee! I'm juuust having an AWESOME time a--AHAHaha! Noooo! Whaha! Oh-haha! I-Hah-I...hAH HOLD ON A SEC! I'm ...I'm calling you from Sei's party! It's a bla-AHAHA! A bla-ast! You should reaaally be here, bro! YAH! Oh my gosh, wahaha! No-no-no...no, hold on...AHHHAHAH! Wahaha! SQUALLEE! Did you know Seifer has-AHAH-ah-ahaha, he ha-aha--has two kitchens? Two-ahaha-two-kitchens, and like, five cooks...AAHAHHA, STOP DOING THAT! WAHAHA!_

_Beep_

Squall groaned and massaged his temple very hard. He glared at the answering machine.

"I _told_ her not to get wasted!" he growled, hastily grabbing for his car keys.

-o-0-o-

Had he been in less of a hurry, Squall might have taken the time to truly stop and gawk at the huge row of magnificent, castle-like houses in the subdivision he was driving into. It was a miniature utopia: a gated community, every house with the greenest of lawns and the healthiest, liveliest of gardens. Every house was in perfect condition, and some were even partially painted in hues that would have looked trashy on any other kind of building. Each was perfect and the same, yet different from the others. Even in the middle of the night, the neighborhood looked inviting and friendly. It was difficult, and not something the hapless brunette was used to.

Glancing down at the address that Rinoa had scribbled down on a notepad much earlier, Squall made sure to pay close attention to the numbers of the houses (especially because it was so dark out.)

However, he should have realized that he wasn't truly in need of the number on the house. All he needed was the din of music through the upcoming mansion's walls and the incredible amount of cars parked up front and along the side. He pulled up and parked somewhere nearby.

As he made his way up the steep, long driveway of the Almasy house, he looked at a few of the cars parked along the side. They were all pretty nice cars, with pretty nice interiors, as far as he could see. He only stopped looking when he came by one and heard odd noises. He pitched and ran when a woman's leg, with only a high-heeled shoe on her foot, pressed against the window.

Gross.

Still creeped out, he slowed down just a little while nearly at the top of the long driveway. He jumped a little when he felt a hand on his shoulder, and spun around a bit too fast.

"Hey, newbie!" A somewhat low girl's voice with strange, unidentifiable dialect, rang out at him. "What are yah doing here?"

Squall calmed down and rubbed an eyelid with his index and middle finger, squinting through the dark to see the girl. Brown hair flipped out at the sides, green eyes that slanted down a bit at the corners, and a cute, girlish little nose. She jutted her hip to the side and put a hand on it, grinning mischievously.

"Yah don't remember me?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. He blinked tiredly.

"I'm in a hurry," he started, but she shook her head vigorously at him, laughing shortly.

"No need for hurrying," she said in a mockingly sing-song voice, "You're trying to sneak into Almasy's party, aren't yah? Ah-ah! I knew it." She grinned.

A little put off by the strange one whom he now recognized as the girl who had known his name in Dance class, Squall couldn't find much to say.

"I'm not...sneaking in..." he mumbled.

Selphie laughed out.

"Yeah, riiight," she mocked slowly, "As if Seifer would invite a newbie like you to his party!" She laughed sarcastically.

The brunette frowned, silver-blue eyes shining as they reflected the moon. Why was this girl such a...nuisance? And why did she insist on continually calling him "newbie?"

"I don't know," he said, trying to end the conversation as concisely as possible, "were _you_ invited?"

Selphie's grin fell and green eyes darkened a shade.

"Why do yah think I'm hanging around outside, idiot?" she said, glaring sharply at him. "Since you're trying to sneak in, yah might as well just join forces with me. Common goal...ever heard of it?" She cocked her head and narrowed her eyes dangerously at him.

He sighed and scratched his head, glancing up at the doorway of the large house.

"Sorry...I'm not sneaking in."

"WHAT? Stop trying to make yourself look better in front of me!" She squawked at him. "I'm hanging out here until I can get in, so no way are yah gonna pretend you were invited!"

"Do you need me to prove it to you?" the brunette sighed and his leg twitched, itching to sprint away. Of course, he figured it wouldn't be that easy.

The brown-haired girl flipped her hair and shook her head.

"Yah know what?" She crossed her arms and narrowed moss-green eyes at Squall. "I don't care if that's true or not. You're still gonno help me sneak in."

Squall turned and started to walk away.

"HEY!" Selphie called out after him. "Get back here! We gotto work together to get in, idiot! Yah can't do it without me!"

He didn't stop walking. He had to go make sure Rinoa wasn't doing anything stupid, and honestly, Selphie was really just a big pain in the-

"YAARGGGH! YOU, SQUALL! IF YAH DON'T GETCHER ARSE BACK OVER HERE, I'LL TELL EVERYONE!"

Squall stopped and slowly turned around, frowning down at the green-eyed girl that had just managed to run up to him, catching her breath.

"Excuse me?" he asked quietly, eyes still reflecting a glow of the moon.

"You heard right!" Selphie glared at him, fixing her ruffled hair and folding her arms again. "Yah watch your back around me, or everyone gets to know what yah really are!"

"What..." his eyes widened in a little stricken expression, and he leaned down. "...What...?"

She pursed her lips and pouted in a fake sympathetic look.

"Oh my, I've got a rather _large_ mouth...what would happen if I _accidentally_ let it slip that Squall Loire is a guy?"

His first instinct was to freeze over completely and just stare at her as if she were crazy. As if she had completely cracked; as if she had no idea what the hell what nonsense was coming from her mouth.

Too bad that wasn't the case.

"I...what...? You wouldn't..." he frowned darkly and stared hard at Selphie's face.

"Now, now," the brown-haired girl tapped her foot and flicked her wrist impatiently in the air. "Let's not make a drama outto this, alright? Just come along with the knowledge that yah could be in serious trouble if yah make me mad." She smirked, looking like the smart-aleck that she was.

Silver-blue eyes sparked over icily and he frowned to himself. How in the world had she found out? Why in the world couldn't she just keep quiet about it instead of apparently trying to make his life living hell?

He sighed and nodded.

-o-0-o-

"I don't get it," Squall mumbled, straining as he pulled harder on the rope. The other end was tied around the lightweight Selphie's waist, and it was pulleyed over a tree branch near one of the Almasys' windows. There was a small lattice under one of the windows, with meager plantlife twisting pathetically around it, and he was using the rope to hoist Selphie up in the air to grab onto it.

Honestly, he thought it was a pretty stupid thing to do.

"Selphie," he growled, struggling to pull the rope down harder, "why the hell are we doing this? This kind of thing only works in fanfiction." He groaned.

"Shut up!" Selphie squealed with a huge grin. "I'm almost there! Almost got it! Yah doin' great!" She held her arms out in front of her as far as she could, squinting her eyes and struggling for the lattice. "A little higher, newbie!"

Squall grunted and pulled a little more, glaring up at her.

"What if the police come?"

Green eyes turned to look down at him and she stuck out her tongue, kicking her legs in mid-air a little impatiently.

"If the police come, then it was all your idea!" She yelled down at him, and the brunette winced, the faded scar between his eyes crinkling delicately under his brow muscles, strengthened from so much frowning.

"AH! Got it!" She yelled, and he instinctively "shh"ed her. The green-eyed young woman grinned crazily as she grasped onto the lattice and climbed stealthily up to the windowsill without even so much as a slip.

Squall watched with wide silver-blue eyes, still lit under the forced glow of the night sky. What the heck_ was _she, spider girl?

_Well_, Squall thought, _her personality is poisonous enough._

The window was open, so Selphie slipped inside, and at this point, Squall was beginning to realize she hadn't even discussed a way for him to get in. Scowling slightly, he started to walk away and just go to the front door like he had originally intended to, but he was stopped by a high-heeled shoe flying at the back of his head and hitting him with a sharp pain.

"AH!" He spun around, quickly cutting off his yelp from fear of disturbing the peace. Selphie's head was sticking out the window, smirking at him and making an odd childish face of mockery. He rubbed his head and frowned up at her.

"Aren't yah coming?" She asked, indicating that he should somehow be able to get up two stories and into the window without assistance. He folded his arms and was about to ask how, exactly, he was supposed to accomplish that, when she dropped the same rope that had been around her waist out the window.

"Climb, newbie, climb!" She squealed in delight.

He blinked up at her, eyes traveling along the rope until it reached the ground.

"I can just go through the door," he called up at her, and she shook her head vigorously, hair bouncing side-to-side insanely.

"No! And even if yah can, I don't want yah to! I wanna see yah climb!" She giggled to herself, making a "come on" gesture with her hand.

Knowing that disobeying these requests would mean walking in dangerous waters, Squall hesitantly took hold of the rope and looked up again. She nodded with a grin.

"It's tied real tight, newbie! Yah won't fall."

Eyelids clenched shut over troubled silver-blue eyes, and he pinched the bridge of his nose before nodding and awkwardly placing a foot on the wall.

_'At least I changed into boots.'_

He didn't even want to imagine attempting this with those horrid contraptions called "flip-flops" on his feet.

He was also lucky that he didn't weigh very much, so the only thing he had to worry about was getting the heel of his boots into the crevices between bricks and hoping to hell fires that the rope wouldn't break and he wouldn't let go.

"Ahh?...!" His boot slipped and he clutched the rope for dear life. He heard Selphie's sardonic laughing and he squinted up, glaring at her.

"Help me..." he growled, and she looked down, studying his situation.

"You're close enough to grab the lattice," she said, folding her arms over her chest and unfolding them again. "Climb up a little higher and I'll grab yah."

Squall hesistated a moment, just staring uncertainly at the rickety lattice. He was about a full 4 inches taller than Selphie, and probably much heavier than her, too; he wasn't sure if the white-painted frame would support his weight.

But it was either that, or hang there until someone decided to let him down. And somehow, he didn't see Selphie as being that someone.

Reluctantly reaching out a strong but slender hand, Squall took a deep breath and clutched onto the lattice, using it for support as he held the rope steadily against himself with the other hand. It shook a little, but he managed to get up to the bottom of the window, and immediately clutched onto the sill.

"Hey!" he called somewhat quietly. "Hey!"

Selphie's grinning face reappeared in the window and she grabbed his wrist with both of her arms, pulling as hard as she could. With a little back force from Squall against the lattice, he pulled up far enough and held himself on the sill with his elbows, reaching a leg over. But Selphie was already too far ahead and yanked him right into the room.

"Ahhhhh!" She squealed. He tumbled through the windowpane and fell on top of her stomach as she fell back, cold sweat just starting to form on his forehead. That was an unpleasant experience.

Squall didn't think to get up, instead, just looked up and noticed how plainly furnished the room was. It looked as if it were a guest room, but contrary to the outside appearance of the house, it wasn't too embellished. It was a nice room, of course, but wasn't as fancy as he expected it would be.

"Would yah get offo me already?" Selphie barked, squirming under him. "You're damn heavy!"

Ignoring the comment about his weight, Squall nodded and pushed himself up with his hands, tugging his foot all the way through the window. Something tugged back and his hand slipped. He fell back down on her.

"Ow! What are yah doin!" She squrimed more, trying to push him up, but found the position too compromising. Squall winced and tugged at his foot and that same something tugged back. He craned his neck and glanced back.

"Hnn..." the taller brunette mumbled with a little groan. "My ankle's caught in the rope."

"AH! Good grief, yah idiot! Just get off!"

He tried to balance himself up on his elbows again, carefully making sure not to put any weight on his trapped foot. Suddenly, a noise from the door, and both Squall and Selphie glanced over at it.

The doorknob turned and two young men walked into the room: one with nearly colorless silver hair, and one with blonde. The silver-haired was leading the blonde in by the hand.

Squall nearly choked up and struggled harder against the rope, to no avail. Selphie squirmed with more force. Needless to say, the silver-haired boy saw them immediately and his teal eyes stared at the two with a bit of a stricken expression.

"Oh my. Did we interrupt something, ladies?"

"No!" Squall nearly cried out, still struggling against the rope in dismay. "It's...uh..."

"NOT what it looks!" Selphie finished, wincing as her hair got stuck under Squall's elbow. "YOW! Let go! Dumbass!"

The other let go of the teal-eyed boy's hand and scratched his spiked blond head, completely lost. A little blush came across the short boy's face.

"Zephyr?" He looked up at his friend. "Um...what's...I thought you said this room was always empty..."

"It usually is," Zephyr laughed and took back the blonde's hand. "I don't think we really should be asking the details of this story. Let's leave them to their business, shall we?" He smiled secretively and kissed the blonde's cheek. He giggled.

"OOOKAY then," Selphie barked, turning her messed head up to glare at Zephyr, "Don't yah think it would be a good idea to help us out? We can't really get up!"

Zephyr sighed and nodded reluctantly, a little smile just barely evident on his face. "Wait here, Eric."

He ruffled the blonde's spikes and went over to the two struggling teens, surveying their situation with a little smile and a raised eyebrow.

"Now...how, and _why_, exactly, did you two end up like this?" He asked, smiling still, and untangling Squall's ankle from the rope. The brunette breathed in relief and sort of fell and tumbled off of Selphie, pulling himself quickly up to his feet. Selphie did something of the sort not long after.

"I have no idea..." Squall breathed to himself, slightly vexed at the whole situation. He brushed a hand through his hair and pushed a large tuft behind one ear, where it had been before.

"Ohh, sure," Selphie folded her arms and narrowed suspicious green eyes at Squall, leaning forward. "As if this wasn't ALL your idea."

"Wha?" Silver flashed over blue eyes in complete confusion, and he glanced at Zephyr almost helplessly. "It wasn't my idea..."

"Was SO!" Selphie pushed his shoulder a little and he rolled it off, frowning almost like a pout.

"No...it wasn't..."

"LIAR!"

Zeph tapped his foot and scratched shining silver hair. "Uh..._what_ wasn't _whose_ idea?"

Both brunettes turned and glanced at him, before glancing back at eachother in defeat.

"Nothing," they both said shortly.

He laughed for a long time, and Squall stood there, feeling extremely awkward while Selphie huffed and looked away. The blonde known as Eric was also standing quietly over by the door, ever patient, but also very confused.

"Whatever mischief you two were making," Zeph said with a sigh, walking back over to the door, "just try not to wreck Seifer's house while you're at it."

Eric's somewhat hazy blue eyes were still studying Squall curiously. The brunette frowned a little, looking away with a self-conscious brush of his hand against the skirt that was over his jeans.

"We'll wreck the house if we WANT to!" Selphie barked out as Zephyr was leading Eric out again. The silver-haired boy turned with a curious look toward Selphie. He then slowly blinked at Squall, as if saying, _Why the heck are you with such a psycho?_

Squall looked back penitently, as if saying, _That is a **very** good question._

"Uh..." Zephyr scratched his head a little and shrugged. "Right. Whatever..."

"Actually, hold up." Selphie nearly bounced over to the tall teen and pursed her lips. "I'm not really here with that loser newbie." She flipped her hair vainly again and Squall resisted the urge to roll his now dull silver-blue eyes. "I was wondering if yah could tell me where Irvine is."

Zephyr raised a fair eyebrow at her and looked slightly put off.

"Irvine? Well..." He glanced behind him down into the foyer, where there was a small group of kids that had come out of the party area to take a break and smoke. "I think he's down there...somewhere."

"Oi, and so here I come! Better watch yah back, Irv!" She laughed to herself and kind of pushed between Zephyr and Eric, sliding down the stairs' rail and disappearing in the mass.

Eric stared after her for a moment and turned back to look at Squall. It was somewhat irritating, actually. Why didn't the blue-eyed boy say something? Squall did his best to ignore the diminutive blonde and walked over to the room's door as well.

"Have you seen my sister?" Always punctual, Squall stared Zeph straight in the eye. Teal eyes widened slightly and confusion flickered through them yet again.

"You have a sister?"

"...Yeah." Squall tapped his fingers against the side of his leg anxiously. "I kind of need to see her right now. She's almost as tall as me, with darker hair and reddish highlights. Her name's Rinoa."

"Rinoa..." Zeph looked thoughtful for a moment and then his aqua green eyes flickered up. "Oh! Was she wearing a red top?"

"Yes..." Anxiety started to form in Squall's gut. Had a certain someone with a red top possibly done something incredibly stupid? The silver-haired young man laughed.

"No need to give me that look," he said with a lighthearted laugh, "just follow me." He left the frame of the doorway, Eric following behind meekly with his hand still clutched in Zeph's. Squall frowned and followed close after, coming up at the blonde's side.

"Hi..." the blonde called Eric greeted, turning his blue eyes over to Squall as he smiled. The brunette smiled back briefly, off-handedly wondering why his eyes looked so foggy. He considered that this boy might be blind, but then dismissed that idea. His eyes weren't unfocused; just hazy.

When Squall smiled back, Eric grinned boyishly and flashed a small bit of perfect white teeth.

"What's your name?" the blonde asked with a cheerful tone. Squall glanced to the side at him.

"...Squall."

Delicate, almost feminine features moved in an impressed look.

"That's an awesome name." Eric looked almost like...a doll, or something. So content and so fragile. Squall laughed shortly.

"Thanks."

Eric nodded and glanced at an expensive painting on the wall. Squall noticed things like this, too; the house, like the outside, and unlike the guest room that he had so pleasantly fallen into, was gallantly furnished. Everything was modern, but expensive. Rich people...

"I'm Eric Cloud," the blonde interrupted his thoughts, beaming so brightly that Squall wondered to himself if the sun was already up.

"Hmm." The brunette smiled slightly and nodded in acknoledgement, not really feeling up to throwing false compliments around. Gods, this was taking forever. Where in hell fires was Rinoa that Zeph was taking so long to get there?

"Yep," Zeph spoke, and apparently Eric had been unaware that he had been listening because the blonde blushed slightly. "Little Cloud here is my boyfriend."

The brunette raised an eyebrow as the blonde turned even more red.

Boyfriend?

So, Squall was a little confused. Apparently, Zeph was gay. Apparently, he was open with his homosexuality. And, apparently, Zeph was still popular despite this. That meant...what? That people didn't mind gays at Garden High? That was a first for Squall.

"But don't tell anyone," the silver-haired one added at length. "Nobody really is supposed to know that, but I just wanted to prove to little fickle here that I'm serious..." Teal eyes glanced back at the blonde uncertainly.

Eric pulled his hand away from Zephyr's as they walked, frowning and blushing more, looking away.

"Zeph...I believe you already...you didn't have to tell her..."

Squall suppressed a loud groan and clenched his eyes shut. So here he was, stuck in the middle of a homosexual soap opera...

"Oh! Here you are. She's just passed out in here, but we checked her earlier and she's all fine." Zeph was rambling. "You know, she's a pretty crazy girl. You sure you two are related? Actually, never mind, I think Eric and I'd better go...we have to take care of something. Enjoy yourself."

Hastily, he pulled the blonde back down the hallway and before Squall could even blink, they were out of sight. Why was everyone so energetic at...

He looked at a clock on the wall.

Why was everyone so energetic at _1:30 in the morning?_

Pushing into the small, well-lit room that was considerably better furnished than the room he had fallen into with Selphie, Squall frowned as he spotted Rinoa dozing on the room's couch, one leg on the armrest and the other nearly on the floor. A ridiculously content look was on her sleeping face. He hated to think it, but she looked pretty dumb.

"Rino..." He kneeled next to her and pinched her cheek gently, silver-blue eyes narrowing in a soft look and then glancing up and down her, happy to notice nothing was wrong except for the scent of an odd alcohol on her breath. She was still breathing, though, and he could tell easily as it was hard not to see every movement she made through the tight, form-hugging material.

Squall sighed to himself. How could she dress so suggestively and then get wasted?

"Rinoa...hey, get up. We have to leave." Squall prodded her cheek again and she frowned, losing that happy and dumb look for a more bothered one. "Reenoo... Wake up." He almost laughed when hazy dark-brown eyes blinked slowly open.

Her hands came up to her face immediately, shielding from the light and rubbing her tired eyelids.

"Squall! ...Are...are we in DisneyWorld yet?" She sat straight up and groaned loudly, lying back down again. "Ahh...no? Where am I?"

"You know," Squall mumbled, checking her forehead and then fanning her slightly, "I did tell you not to get wasted."

She glanced at him and grinned widely through muddled eyes.

"Big bro...I love youuu!...HAaahn." She finished with a yawn.

He couldn't suppress a chuckle, stroking her hair once before standing up.

"Love you too, but you havegotto do something about that drinking of yours," he chided, and she giggled, turning over on the couch to bury her face in the mattress in an attempt to sleep again.

"Come on, Rinoa, let's go home and you can sleep there." He glanced down. "Where's your jacket?"

She turned over lazily and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Down...the hall...uh..." she frowned as if struggling for something. "The hall...hall..." She paused, then grinned. "Oh yea. The hallway."

Silver-blue eyes sparked over in amusement and he shook his head, going out in the hall.

"Just wait here."

-o-0-o-

Down the hallway...

Squall should have taken time to consider that in a house like the Almasys', there would be many things that "down the hallway" could mean. Of course, he _hadn't _taken the time to consider, and he was thorougly confused after about 20 seconds.

He didn't see the jacket anywhere in the actual hallway, so he imagined it might be in a room. However, most of the rooms had closed doors, and the few that he had tried had either been locked or had an activity going on behind them that kept Squall away with the effectiveness of a lock.

The brunette wandered about the main upstairs hall rather aimlessly; there were a few open doors that he peeked into, but most of the rooms were dark and empty. He didn't think Rinoa's jacket would be in those. But then again, it might be. Honestly...he was tired. He didn't feel up to looking in every room he came across.

Squall was not surprised when he got to another dark room, but it was a double-door and the frame was somewhat taller and grander than the others. It was also the last room in the hall and was on the end instead of the sides. Thinking that maybe this was where Rinoa had dumped her jacket, he slowly pushed the door open and silver-blue eyes scanned the room for occupants before he relaxed more and entered. It was empty.

The whole room had an overwhelmingly intense feel to it. It was like being trapped in a dream: the moonlight burning against the darkness of the tall windows; tall drapes falling elegantly along their sides; the far wall being the display of many musical instruments and a full grand piano in the centre of the polished wood flooring that was playing a gentle melody. The moon's glow through the tallest middle window illuminated part of the piano and a portion of the floor.

No, Rinoa's jacket was not there. But something about the room was drawing him in, and something inside Squall told him it would not be right to leave just yet.

Besides, a mesmerizing song was being played on the huge grand piano. He could see that nobody was sitting there from the glow of the moon, but it was one of those pianos that could play itself through a program. Nothing about the music seemed mechanical, though; it was as if it had been recorded.

Squall sighed a bit in sedated contentment, sinking to the floor and leaning against the wall. Eyelids flickered down over glowing silver-and-blue, brown head of hair leaning back as he let the soft melody ease his heart. This was truly therapy: no massage or expensive procedure could ever outweigh music's floating sensation on his whole body.

It always made him wonder: _Have I died and gone to heaven? _It felt so.

Yes; he felt as if he was slowly losing himself to the sky. With every breath he took, a little piece of him melted into the clouds. A little contented sigh passed his lips. And when he felt just about completely gone, he brought himself back just barely and stood up slowly, moving across to the piano with smooth steps.

Silver was unnaturally stagnant over his blue eyes as he watched the song being played by the mechanism, keys going up and down and moving so smoothly and quietly as if an angel's sweet breath was flitting across the piano.

Slowly, his foot moved without his conscious effort. His other foot followed. Smooth movements and graceful steps later, his arms were drawn up and his neck craned just barely as he turned his face ever slightly. The song had hypnotized him, he decided, and he let his body fall into an instinctive, flawless dance.

It was the true meaning of being captivated by song. Perhaps it wasn't joy he felt when dancing, but the quintessence of calm and belonging. There were no complex emotions or troubles during dance. It was his secret retreat from the chaos that was the world, his peaceful refuge from the confusions of life. It was his place and his alone, and being there was the only time that Squall truly understood himself.

"Wow...you're really good."

Suddenly shaken from his angel's reverie, Squall realized what he was doing, when he was doing it, and _where_ he was doing it, and came to a stricken halt. Troubled silver-blue eyes flickered over to the doorway and widened upon meeting an all-too-familiar gaze of jade-green.

"Seifer?"

His face grew warm and he looked down, expecting some kind of sarcastic joke or bothersome comment. Squall couldn't do much. He didn't even want to look at Seifer after the whole thing in the city...

"Ah-ahha," the man in the doorway laughed and tapped his fingers against the doorframe, narrowing his green eyes in a grin. Squall glanced at him, looking slightly defeated.

"Nothing of this is funny..." the brunette mumbled to himself, but the blonde apparently had caught it.

"It is, though." He walked into the room with a narrow grin, only a part of him luminated by the moon. The rest of him was rather difficult to make out.

"..." Squall glared at his hands and shook his head to himself, straightening his back a bit and mumbling something as he tried to walk past. A strong hand grabbed his elbow and pulled him back in the room almost too forcefully.

"What..."

"Quiet," The blonde said sharply, reaching his arm behind him to shut the door. Silver-blue eyes flew wide open and he stared at the taller man in disbelief.

A bad feeling kicks in right...about...now.

"What are you...-ah...?...!"

Squall struggled, but a fierce grip on his turtleck's fabric pushed him against the wall and he couldn't reach the ground. It was a trying situation, admittedly; he was forcing himself not to panic and to think rationally.

Not good...not good...

Hot breath tickled his neck extremely uncomfortably, and Squall only grunted slightly, trying to pull away. The blonde's grip on his collar only strengthened and warm, harsh lips sloppily kissed around his neck and up his jaw to his ear, where sharp teeth bit him and blew shallow breaths.

Not, not, not good...at all.

"Let go..." Squall groaned, feeling already thoroughly violated and somehow believing that this was not the worst of the blonde's plans.

"You little slut..." The blonde pulled back for a moment and stared him hard in the eyes, the jade-green of his own glowing with a demonic intent. Dark-rimmed metallic blue widened even more and he was starting to feel nauseated...

_'Shit, shit, shit...and I didn't even find Rinoa's jacket...'_

The blonde then closed his long, strong fingers around Squall's neck as he tried squirming harder. He choked and gasped for breath. What kind of hellish dream had this angelic room become? The piano still played gently in the background.

"L-Let go..."

...Just that malicious jade-green stare: for a long while, as the brunette started to feel light-headed and was having a difficult time drawing breath.

"Seif...Let...g.go..."

_SLAM_

"GET THE FUCK OFF HER!"

Squall didn't have time to realize what was happening except that he could breathe again (albeit a little painfully.) Lightly touching his neck, Squall glanced up, blurry vision finding focus again as he tried to find who had knocked his assailant off.

Silver-blue eyes widened once again, and Squall had to blink twice or three times to be sure he was seeing correctly.

Seifer, and...

Seifer?

"You little bastard! Get the fuck out of here! This isn't your business!" The Seifer who had apparently assaulted Squall yelled angrily at the other.

"_You_ get the fuck out of here! You sick shit!" Seifer 2 made to grab the other's collar but missed; instead, he pulled up and socked Seifer 1 in the jaw. Squall cringed. That made a loud, unequivocal noise that made his stomach turn a bit. Then again, his stomach had been turning ever since Seifer 1 had entered the room earlier.

Seifer 1 held his jaw and glared at the other, storming out of the room and mumbling something to himself, slamming the door behind him for no reason.

"And STAY the hell out!"

After a moment of silence and Seifer 2 glaring at the door after the other blonde, the remaining green-eyed young man turned almost awkardly and looked over Squall.

"Dammit..." the blonde breathed to himself. "He didn't do anything, did he?"

The brunette shivered slightly and shook his head, shakily standing up. His eyes were still wide.

"You...are...who?" Okay, so it was a bit of a dumb question, but he was still shaken about the two Seifers. You would be, too.

The blonde laughed almost bitterly.

"Seifer Almasy, the very same rotten-hearted bastard from school," he said with a half-smile.

"Then who was the other...?" Dammit, Squall growled at himself in his head. His hands were still shaking. Why weren't they stopping?

Green eyes widened unevenly and a shocked expression struck Seifer's handsomely shadowed features.

"Are you kidding?" he spat, and Squall looked away immediately. "You thought that was me?"

"Y..You look the same to me," the brunette answered in a shaken voice, and Seifer sneered, folding his arms and turning away.

"That," he fumed angrily, "was my sick shit of a father." He looked away, angry, and, if Squall was seeing correctly, ashamed.

"...Oh..." The brunette silently watched Seifer as the blonde folded his arms and looked down at his shifting foot. Then he realized something: that man in the city, who had been with Quistis...

"Hhn..." Squall made a little throaty noise as if he wanted to say something, and slightly troubled candy-green eyes rose to meet his questioningly.

"What is it?" Seifer asked, obviously still miffed about his dad.

"Earlier...in..." he hesitated. He wanted to ask, but he also didn't want to bring up the city, because he figured Seifer might have had suspicions about the short-haired brunette that had been listening to him play in that club. "Did...? Were...? ...uh." He looked down and up again, slightly perplexed. "Were you in the city?"

Oh, very good question. Of freaking course he was in the city; both Seifer and what was possibly also Seifer had been there! Smooth.

The blonde raised an eyebrow and a small grin grew on his face, green eyes sparking with the first pleasant emotion Squall had seen there since Seifer had entered the room.

"You should know better than anyone," he remarked slyly, cocking his head and wearing a more lopsided grin. "You were the one sitting there like a zombie when I played."

Squall's brow twitched and he looked away quickly, twisting his mouth uncomfortably. He felt very helpless and kind of stupid, for all these things people found out about him; Selphie with his identity, Zeph with his unorthodox means of entering the party, and now Seifer with his now completely embarrassing display of...enjoyment of his music. Woe was him.

"Mm." The brunette whined a little, and electric-silver on stagnant-blue eyes turned to look at anything they could but the blonde. He folded his arms across his chest in discomfort.

"Well, why do you ask?" Seifer let out a little soundless sigh and walked back a little, grunting silently as he pulled himself to sit on the edge of the grand piano that was still playing the soft melody (the top of the piano was down.)

"...I thought I saw you in the street," Squall said almost too quietly. "It was...you were..." he hesitated again, not sure how to word it. "Quistis..you hit...her." He then turned an accusing silver-blue stare at Seifer, just to be safe in case it had been this blonde.

Forest-green eyes flashed indignantly and Seifer covered his face with his hands, massaging it very slowly and forcefully. He frowned so hard that he might have gotten lines if he had kept it up much longer.

"I told her to stay away from him!" He growled. "Didn't I tell you, idiot? I told you the guy's a fuckin' bastard."

He seemed to be growling at someone who was probably not Squall. The brunette was silenced and he watched Seifer's silent reprimanding commence. If he weren't trying to keep the feel of the whole situation, Squall might have admitted to himself that this was highly amusing to watch.

"Um."

Suddenly, as if Seifer had only just realized he was in someone's presence, the blonde glanced up penitently and shook his head gruffly at Squall.

"It wasn't me," he mumbled with a sharp, irate glance. "That damn teacher from our school's been trying to get my asshole dad to put in word with Balamb's city to build some kind of dance institution."

Delicate brown eyebrows rose to the height of Squall's forehead. Quistis was?

Something then burst into flame in Seifer's green eyes and he narrowed them just slightly, tightening his fists as if he wanted to jump up and smash something-or someone-to pieces.

"That woman didn't listen to me, did she? All he ever wanted from her was a goddamn f-"

"Uhn." Squall shook his head with a small sigh. "Okay...I get it..."

Seifer looked up at Squall, almost helplessly, but it was quickly masked under a brooding frown. The brunette blinked slowly, and Seifer didn't say more.

The piano's airy song was drifting about the room more noticeably now. Squall lowered his eyelids to look down at his hands, as he yawned and sleepy tears came to his eyes. Something told him he was going to be in a very bad and tired mood tomorrow. He felt prematurely bad for Zell, knowing that some of the more tiresome things the crested blonde would undoubtedly do might cause Squall, in his angry state, to react in a less than civil manner.

But it wasn't the time to be thinking ahead just yet.

The weighted silence rested uncomfortably on the two, and the piano's aimless playing only proved to be a worthy distraction from the awkward moment.

"...C'mere for a second." The blonde finally said, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully across the room at Squall.

Squall didn't move.

"Gods," Seifer sighed and rolled darkened green eyes, throwing his hands up in defeat, "I'm not going to try anything stupid. I just want to see something."

The brunette watched Seifer suspiciously. This was Seifer, the narcissistic, egotistical bastard. And still, he walked a few steps closer to the blonde, who was far across the room on the piano.

_'This isn't a good idea,' _Squall told himself with an inward sigh. _'I can't stop, though...'_

He was about 5 feet away from Seifer when he stopped. Silver-blue eyes came up to meet a slightly brooding dark-green gaze. The brunette held back a shiver that was threatening his spine. He stood there patiently.

"You know..." Seifer leaned back on his arms on top of the large piano, eyes flickering thoughtfully, "I did say it before, but you really are different." He stopped and frowned. "It's not a compliment, but I'm just saying...it's true."

Squall blinked and stared into strikingly green eyes, frowning lightly and sighing noiselessly. So what if he was different?

"Okay..." The brunette mumbled.

"I mean," Seifer continued, "any other girl would have clung to me and tried to make me feel better about this whole thing with my dad...any other girl would have hated to see me mad..."

"..." _Okay_, Squall thought. _Yay for the story of Seifer's life. Thank you, may I leave now? Because at this rate I won't even be on time for school, let alone have enough time to sleep._

"And you?" The blonde blinked up with a little perplexed frown. "You basically told me to shut up and quit whining."

Confused silver-blue eyes rose up to meet his gaze. He raised an eyebrow for lack of anything better to do then, and looked away.

"Mm." He covered his mouth with slender fingers, and took a big, much-needed yawn. Seifer chuckled at him, and he glanced sharply at the blonde with a little frown.

"See? You're not even remotely interested in what I have to say." His lopsided grin grew slightly. "It's just really weird."

Squall frowned darkly at him, mouth twisting up in disapproval. "What's so weird about not liking you?" he asked with a tiny scowl. "Take a look atyourselfbefore you call _me_ weird."

The blonde's well formed eyebrows shot up quickly and he opened his mouth to say something, then stopped. That statement was going to stay in his mind and haunt him; he just _knew_ it would. But he forced the stabbing words away from him for the moment and continued as if his ego hadn't just been attacked a la guerilla warfare.

"And you know what else is weird?" he continued, obviously taking Squall by at least a little surprise, "That scar."

Well, that was certainly _not _one on the list of things Squall had imagined Seifer would say. Okay, so he had a scar. It wasn't repulsive or very noticeable, was it?

Uh, right...sure. Not noticeable at all, except for the fact that it took up half of his face and went right down the centre of it.

"So what?" Squall said, obviously a little put off. "I'm not forcing you to look at it." He used this as a base statement to leave, and started to turn.

"True," the blonde said quickly, attempting to make Squall stay, and it sort of worked as the brunette stopped and turned back again, looking slightly irate, "but I didn't mean it's repulsive. I was just saying it's weird because...well, it looks a lot like mine."

A genuinely perplexed look crossed the brunette's face, and he walked a few tentative steps closer, squinting his eyes halfway to stare at Seifer's face, and the blonde let him. A few moments later, Squall frowned into that jade-green gaze.

"I don't see anything."

Seifer waved his wrist. "It's hard to see. You can look closer."

For the second time, Squall didn't move. He stared at Seifer's face uncertainly, as if he really wanted to locate this so-called scar, but didn't want to move any closer. This was one of those moments that the piano's playing became more strong in his conscious mind.

"Well?" Seifer blinked slowly, and Squall hesitated. He leaned forward just slightly and stepped so that they were almost 3 feet apart. Silver-blue eyes narrowed as he studied the blonde's face. In the cool moonlight, a shadow fell on it and Squall could finally see what he had been looking for.

Just barely, but it was there: a thin scar, normally well hidden in the faint tanned glow of Seifer's skin. It was a lot less noticeable than Squall's. Slowly, the brunette lifted his perplexed ice-gray, barely blue gaze from the scar to meet Seifer's look.

"I see it," he said quietly, obviously a bit more than slightly fascinated. Seifer took on a lopsided, albeit very tiny, grin.

"Kind of strange." Seifer returned quietly, leaning to one side as he sat there on the piano, slowly closing his eyes.

"...Yeah." The brunette frowned and studied Seifer's scar again. The blonde blinked open eyes of immaculate green and stared back at him.

"How old is it?" Seifer asked. He narrowed his eyes and lifted his hand up. Taking on a guarded expression, Squall made to pull away from the strong, tanned hand, but his feet froze and the piano's hypnotic melody was telling him to stay, if only for a moment.

_'Move...move...'_

But, unlike when Irvine had scrutinized his scar that morning, he didn't feel angry when Seifer's warm hand traced the faintly pink line between his eyes. He just felt...

Uncomfortable.

"..." Squall's delicate features twisted into a bit of a grimace but the song floating from the piano had nailed him in place.

Seifer's green eyes narrowed as his index finger barely grazed along the brunette's scar. He moved his gaze to meet Squall's questioningly.

"It's pretty old..." The blonde hummed, obviously not minding Squall's slight fidgeting. "Don't think this is going to go away."

Squall frowned in discomfort. Why couldn't he move? Was he afraid that Seifer would jump him like his dad had?

Somehow...he didn't think that was the case.

"No..." the brunette mumbled, frowning down uncertainly, just trying to look away. "It's not going to."

"Hmm." Seifer hummed again with an affirming nod. Then he pulled Squall's face up to study the scar once more. The brunette's mouth twitched. He wanted to ask the blonde to stop. Or to continue. Or...

Ah...So confused...!

"Too bad," the blonde sighed. Then he looked up into unsettled silver-blue eyes and smiled slightly. "But you know what...?"

Squall's brow twitched this time, some form of acknowledgement, for his throat and mouth were stuck in a knot and he couldn't get them to function.

"Mm." Was Squall's very own choked up version of _What? _Seifer's smile grew slightly.

"...I like it." The blonde finished and chuckled quietly at the brunette's muddled and confused look.

"..." Well, there wasn't much Squall could say. _Thanks? _Sure, it sounded right, but...it just seemed out of context.

And yet again, the tranquil melody sang through the air, just barely reaching Squall's ears as his face grew slightly warm; and he was sure that Seifer could feel it under the surprisingly soft finger that was resting on the very base of the brunette's scar. He frowned almost spasmodically.

His arm twitched and stiffened, eyes growing just slightly wider as Seifer's warm finger trailed off his scar and along the inside of his cheek by his delicate nose, tracing down slowly as strikingly green eyes insisted on focusing solely on his own turbulent pair of stormy blue. He couldn't look away, and had a very bad feeling he knew where this was leading.

Moving at an excruciatingly slow rate, the blonde, still seated on the piano, traced his finger slower and slower until it almost didn't move down Squall's face at all, and it finally stopped at the corner of the brunette's pouty lips. Silver-blue eyes clenched shut and his mouth twitched as he held back a little grimace.

And it was no sooner than Squall felt a warm breath on his mouth that he felt on them something of more substance. Seifer wasn't quite as sure of himself as Squall thought he would be, but the brunette froze under the blonde's trying, unmoving lips nonetheless. Not really a kiss...if one could call it that...but...it was something.

They stayed that way for part of a moment: Seifer leaned forward from on the piano, faintly coloured, harshly lined lips on the brunette's fuller, slightly more coloured ones. Squall stood there, losing his mind to the music yet again and almost forgetting about his situation. There was that feeling again...why did he feel like he was melting into clouds at _that_ moment?

The brunette frowned and tore away from the not-exactly throttling or passionate kiss, putting a hand over his mouth and finding that his feet were working again. He tossed up a bit of a confused and hurt look at the blonde, and Seifer gave him much the same stare.

"Sorry..." Squall mumbled, looking away quickly and gently rubbing on his mouth, "Just...listen," He gave a kind of hopeful glance up toward Seifer and sighed soundlessly, staring into endless depth of muddled green. "I don't know...you may think that everyone should like you, but...I don't..." He struggled. "...you just...you...have to get used to it."

With a dismayed frown, Squall turned and started to walk away. Confusion and sleepiness reigned above all his emotions at that point. His face was still warm, and his mouth tasted just a little different.

And there, in the moonlight, sat Seifer atop the piano in his solitude; every note flying gently from the keys adding another layer to his confusion and his mind's disarray. He buried his face in his hands with a grunt.

"Shit," he breathed. "Why the hell did I..."

Okay, so he wasn't honestly sure what exactly he had been trying to prove. Was he attracted to this new girl, or was he just out to prove that he could have anyone he wanted? So, if Squall was right, that not every girl in the world liked him, he could deal with that. That was okay.

But the problem with that was: saxophone-playing aside, the only thing that Seifer Almasy was infinitely good at was wanting absolutely nothing but the very things he couldn't have.

-o-0-o-

SEE? SEE? DIDN'T I TELL YOU? Not fluff. More like a giant haystack of confusion with a needle of fluff thrown in it. You gotta look real hard for it. XD

When i finished writing this, I threw myself down and took a nice, 2-hour nap. Damn, that felt so freaking good /sighs happily/

I bet I scared the hell out of you guys with Seifer's dad! Aahahahahaha...oh, that was rich.../wipes a laughing tear from eye/ OH man, you should have seen your guys' faces! Priceless! xD

D': I originally thought this was going to be a short chapter. So how the fuck did it end up more than 10,000 words! You know, if I really wanted, I could just cut up my chapters and post them seperately just to get like, 5 times the reviews I currently get, but what I really want is to make you all happy and warm inside. Althought I'm not sure that's really what I'm doing. Maybe you're all really fed up with my icky writing. xD

/offers to her reviewers bottles of Trabian beer/ It's actually fresh squeezed Cactuar juice; high fiber, low pulp! Drink up!

Note: Beethoven's Sonata 8 Cmin Op13 "Pathetique"; Part 2: Adagio Cantabile/Part 3: Rondo, Allegro. I love it. It inspires me so. Call me what ya want, but Beethoven and Rachmaninov being my favourites...I do so love classical music. Listen to this song while reading the dancey scene up there and you might understand the emotion better...I mean, I don't communicate this sensation through words very well. It's...breahtaking and I wish the whole world could feel it /such a sucker for beethoven/

Too bad there can't be a Beethoven songfic /snorts/ maybe i should write lyrics for him...XD

_(Whisper...I don't have a beta reader. Do you think I need one? I am unsure if this needs to be edited. D':)_


	8. So He Questions Sexuality

O.O

My computer deleted this file while I was writing it, again...

...Thankfully, I had only written the A/N up to that point. /retarded laugh/ Anyway. Sorry about the _slightly _overdue update. I'm honestly quite flattered by all of the wonderful comments I've received (and to those who took time to give me some constructive criticism or point out my mistakes, I really, really appreciate it! You're all so smart and observant; makes me feel so silly sometimes...)

Also, those who flatter me shamelessly...I love you so much. RavenMistress...this goes out to you, dear. I like, imploded from happiness at your review. :D

Anyway, the main reason this took so long is because...well, I'm not going to lie; I just totally lost interest in writing chapter 8 because it was at this point where I'm all like, "...ok, so...what now?" I mean, I already had stuff planned for the future, but the problem is all these slower transition points...ANYWAY...I discovered that all I had to do to get interested again was to take this opportune moment, as I have been home alone all day, to be the lazy bum I've always wanted to be. So, after five hours of watching Fairly Oddparents (heh) and one really, really bad strange episode of Naruto (they gave him a HORRIBLE voice!) I am now ready to write!

(Though that whole "sexy jutsu" thing had me seriously rofl... xD)

* * *

"_I am not so easily beaten, but still...I'm so sick of it all. I want to be myself. I want to be free. That's all. But no one seems to understand that."_

-Masami Tsuda

* * *

**Dancing in Drag**

**Chapter 8: So He Questions Sexuality**

Squall was a very happy camper.

Very, very happy.

Mostly, this was because Rinoa had been too out of it that morning to notice that Squall was not showing off his "figure" or, in fact, making any sort of attempt to look lovely. In his new and explosively feminine wardrobe, the brunette had actually managed to find something to his liking. His outfit consisted of a black, ankle-length skirt, ruffled with light, layered material that flared out slightly, only just enough so that it had no means of sticking to and accentuating his form.

On top, though he wasn't about to risk not wearing his "addition," he still made himself partly comfortable in a black tee-shirt, entirely too large for even two of him to fit into and quite obviously intended for sleepwear. He decided to go all-out with his look and wear a long, black trench-coat of sorts over his ensemble, creating a look not much unlike that of a crazed night-stalking fangirl with some vague, off-handed element of fashion knowledge.

Not that this slightly messed look was bothering him, and he wished good luck to whoever decided it would them, because he was comfortable, content, and happy as a clam.

A very, very happy clam.

Squall was mildly surprised that Rinoa even had the energy to dress up (almost) as nicely as she had the previous day. He was not surprised, however, that, though she had applied cosmetics with an almost alien-like perfection, her expression was tired enough to make all of that foundation, blush, and whatnot, just fall asleep and slide right down off her complexion again. If cosmetics could sleep, that is. Which they couldn't. But thoughts like this usually tended to bound around Squall's head and make him into a bit of an internally hyperactive person whenever he was happy in this way.

"Wow, you sure look happy," Zell bounced into homeroom just a minute before the late bell, narrowly avoiding the sharp, yellow glance that Edea shot at him. No, late students would not be tolerated. He was lucky to be fully in his seat right before the bell.

"Yeah," Squall smiled to himself and twisted a bit of the light skirt material in his finger, delighting in the fact that he no longer felt the impulsive need to cross his legs at the calves. Instead, he kicked his feet forward a bit, earning a bit of an amused look in Zell's gaze, fragmented in depth by shades of cerulean blue.

"Feeling alright?" He chuckled slightly at the slightly annoyed but not truly displeased look on Squall's face.

Honestly…Zell was acting like he knew Squall perfectly. Who was he to assume that Squall had not just been in a quieter mood the day before and was not usually just this happy? Though Zell's assumption was, for the most part, right on target, it still didn't seem the sort of thing that was appropriate for a friend of only about 24 hours to be doing. Then again, people making assumptions about him seemed to just be a fact of life.

_...probably is really a girl._

_You see him over there? _

_He's gay! Yeah! ...Huh? Ahha ha! I'm so serious..._

_...A total fag. I head he tried to rape...in the locker room!_

_No way! Well, I heard he doesn't even have a..._

Look more like a man! Be more like a guy, a masculine, thuggish, football-playing, video-game playing, one-of-the-boys man! Drink beer, watch sports on TV, smoke pot behind your parents' backs, go gang-banging with us some time...why not? It's what we do. It's what us _guys_ do.

And after all of that...after all of it...

Delicate dark brown eyebrows dropped down in a slight frown.

Just look how masculine I am _now_.

Suddenly, Squall didn't look nearly so happy anymore.

-o-0-o-

"HAAAhhhnn." Yawn. "Man, this is boring. I'm tired. I don't think I got enough sleep. I don't think I should be at school today. Rrrgh, I'm exhausted! It's not right to force me to work this hard!"

In first class, seated next to someone not even remotely as happy as the day previous, Zell turned an anxious look toward his companion and frantically communicated with his eyes that she should quiet down.

After all, all French teachers seemed to have an old crepe permanently lodged up their asses. Undoubtedly, Monsieur S was no exception. Rinoa didn't seem to notice Zell's worried glances, however, and she continued to make small complaints about her personal well-being. The crested blonde had little to say to her after realizing she was too in herself at that moment to realize his concerns for their safety in the cool blue classroom of Madame Shiva's husband.

"Maybe you could learn something from Squall," Zell suggested with a little yawn in reaction to Rinoa's. She turned her chocolate-brown doe-eyes over to him, slightly red at around the edges with extreme tiredness. Still, she managed to comprehend this comment.

"What do you mean?" She brought her forearm over her mouth and scrunched her eyelids shut in another long yawn before blinking dry eyes at Zell again. "What's...what's…?" She couldn't go on, and was silenced by another yawn. Zell sighed and laughed a bit despite himself, shaking his head and looking away.

"You went to Seifer's party last night, huh?" Zell pursed his lips and glanced back at her, and she lifted a lazy eyebrow, leaning forward on the desk and letting her eyelids drop all the way down for a few seconds before she forced herself awake again.

"Yep," she said, eyes watering as she yawned again and rubbed her eyelids. Falling asleep was not a good idea. "It was a lot of fun."

"Squall was worried about you, wasn't she?" the blonde then asked with a small smile. Rinoa wasn't awake enough to notice that this question seemed to have come out of nowhere, nor was she awake enough to care.

"Sure was. Though, she took so long to get my jacket, I think she probably stopped along the way and got a little lucky...hmmm." She knew herself that this couldn't be true, because, after all, Squall was a guy and wouldn't risk revealing his identity. In any case, sleepy or not, messing with Zell's blonde, malleable head was becoming somewhat of a sporting event to Rinoa.

Cerulean blue eyes flew open.

"Squall wouldn't do that!" he nearly shouted, but restrained his impulses for the sake of keeping Monsieur S at bay. Rinoa gave him an amused, albeit tired look.

"And how long have you known her?" she asked doubtfully. Zell suddenly looked disheartened, but really couldn't find anything to say back. The dark-haired girl leaned her head down in her arms again with a little smile, closing her eyes and ignoring Zell's slight poking of her shoulder.

"I dunno," Zell answered; though he was more mumbling to himself as Rinoa wasn't listening anyway. He scratched the back of his neck and glanced at the back of the dark-haired girl's snoozing head with a bit of a troubled expression. So honestly, he didn't really like Rinoa all that much. And, for some reason, she didn't make him as nervous as any other girl (especially Squall.)

Rinoa mumbled something incoherent without opening her eyes. Surprisingly, Monsieur S was going on with his review lesson, and didn't seem to mind, or perhaps simply didn't notice, that the girl was sleeping. Zell leaned his chin forward on his hands and stared at the whiteboard for a while.

"You two..." he muttered under a tiny yawn, "...sure are different..."

Slowly, his eyelids fell all the way down and he didn't notice the lazy kick of Rinoa's foot against his shin.

-o-0-o-

"Almasy! What's with that face?"

The crystal-blue-eyed, thin-limbed young man jogged over to his "buddy" and clapped him firmly on the shoulder. Seifer, looking a little miffed, turned his forest-green eyes and regarded the auburn-haired boy with very little (if any) amusement

"What?" he asked flatly and Irvine's thin lips stretched in a little smirk.

"You just don't look wonderful, cowboy," Irvine observed with a whistle, gaze traveling up and down along Seifer's tall, well-built frame.

Irvine sometimes wondered how it would be to have muscles built like his blonde companion, because, for the majority of his life, he had been pretty much nothing but scrawny. If he wasn't so easily able to love himself, Irvine would have worn sweats in P.E. to hide his skinny, skinny legs. But Irvine was Irvine, and if anyone could make chicken-legs sexy, it was him. Besides, as he saw it, weight-training was just another way to waste precious time that would be much better spent with females.

"Fuck off," Seifer requested curtly, taken over by a closed-mouth yawn.

Irvine raised the eyebrow on his handsome face, off-handedly remembering to remove his cowboy hat. He set it down with utter gentleness behind the bench, and gave it a wistful, loving smile before looking back up at Seifer.

"My, my," he grinned, cocking his head with a questioning little narrow-eyed smirk. "Why the hostility?"

Seifer didn't bother to look at the other. His gaze traveled idly around the gym, where small groups of friends, not unlike him and Irvine, were wasting P.E. time just talking. Finally, his eyes stopped on a dark-haired boy whom he didn't know very personally, but who had once declared his..."admiration" for Seifer in the locker rooms. It had been the previous year, but how could he ever forget that face that had twisted so in embarrassment when Seifer had told him, slightly uncomfortable, that he was not gay?

"It doesn't matter," Seifer finally responded, narrowing his eyes at that dark-haired boy who seemed to be speaking with a taller, stronger-looking red-haired friend. Scratch that; he was definitely a boyfriend, judging by the way they now apparently had knotted their tongues together. Well, Seifer sighed in his mind, he was glad that kid wasn't likely to be bothering him much this year. What was his name, anyway? The blonde asked himself as Irvine watched him carefully. ...Nida? Yeah, it was Nida...

"MEN."

Coach DoomTrain stomped over to them, his shadow long and imposing. The two "men" turned to look at the huge, bulky...thing, whistle glinting slightly in the gymnasium lights as it hung around his impossibly large, meaty neck. Irvine grinned lopsidedly.

"Hey, Coach DT, looking sharp!" He reached up to tip his hat as a force of habit and a quick grimace shot his handsome face as he remembered his hat was off, and his hand dropped down again quickly. "Heard you got your eyes on a lady," he recovered his look.

Seifer frowned and closed his eyes for a moment. Coach DoomTrain frowned also, directing his squinty-eyed glare at Irvine.

"QUIET," he spoke, tone heavy. He then turned to the blonde, who was looking slightly irritated. Of course, he didn't really notice, let alone care. "ALMASY. PLAYING DODGEBALL, WE ARE. CAPTAINS, YOU AND KINNEAS ARE."

The auburn-haired cowboy laughed aloud at Seifer's blank expression as the coach thomped away. Irvine shot him a quick, extremely amused look before going off to the centre of the gym, Seifer not far behind. They stood a bit apart, facing the one half of the room.

"I call Nida! (_Rinoa was looking for you last night_.)" Irvine whispered this last part to Seifer as Nida reluctantly left his red-haired boyfriend to jog up beside the auburn-haired boy. Seifer frowned, but didn't look at the other.

"Calhoun! (_Who cares? She's a pain in the ass._)" He whispered back as the red-head, Calhoun, came over to join Seifer's team. Irvine didn't glance at Seifer, either, but his reddish-brown eyebrows rose to the height of his forehead.

"Baker! (_Really, now? I think she's more your type, though_.)"

Seifer's forest-green gaze shot sideways questioningly.

"McEneaney! (_What are you trying to say?_)" The blonde's naturally down-turned lips stiffened and the corners of his mouth pinched down even more than normal. Irvine smirked.

"Newsom! (_I'm saying I think you should forget the sister and go for sweet little Rinoa.)"_ Irvine shot Seifer a suggestive grin and the blonde brushed an idle hand through his short, gelled hair, leaning back a bit with an irritated look.

"Gibson! (_Shut your face_.)"

Irvine's brow line and mouth twitched up at the same time as he restrained giving Seifer another amused look. His myrrh-like blue eyes scanned the crowd of un-teamed boys, trying to decide who to choose next.

"Murray! (_Well, I think I see now why you're in such a bad mood_.)"

"Hack! (_Oh, really?)" _The blonde's eyebrow lifted slightly and Seifer narrowed his darkened, stagnant green eyes, flicking his wrist in a gesture for the young man to hurry up. Irvine snorted quietly.

"Chang! (_Don't you th-)_ Yo! Other Chang!" Irvine blew a bit of the wavy hair framing his face away, laughing shortly at the two confused Changs. "(_You went for her last night, didn't you?)"_

Seifer sneered at him.

"Onuma! (_How do you figure?)"_

The auburn-haired cowboy grinned and scratched his head idly with a loud, mouthy yawn.

"(_Because the only time you act like-) _Bieman!" His sentence was cut short by impatient looks from the young men yet unsorted into teams. Seifer glanced at him quickly.

"Wells! (_Act like what?)"_ Irvine smirked.

Wells ran up to his side a bit too quickly, and reached up to shove Seifer's shoulder with a mean look on his face. Both he and Irvine stared at the shorter boy with confused looks, Seifer's leaning more on the irate side, and Irvine's toward amusement.

"Yo!" Wells, a blue-haired individual, said with an odd shake of his head, eyes narrowing at Seifer, "What's with you, man? I see you near my girl again, and that's the end of you!"

Seifer leaned down, such an impressive height that he could turn his head all the way down to stare at this Wells. The blue-headed boy frowned, not able to hide his sudden jolt of fear.

"Who, exactly, is your girl?" Seifer growled under his breath, and Wells swallowed.

"Kim Gray," Wells said, frowning up into darkened green eyes that then sparked in amusement as Seifer pulled away with a short laugh.

"Get your facts straight; _I_ was the one getting stalked all the freakin' way around my house by that bitch." He huffed and gestured down at Wells. "I guess I'm lucky I got away from her, but...man, I can see now why she's so desperate to get into someone else's pants."

"W-What!" Wells' eyes went wide and he raised a fist. "You fat bastard!"

Seifer snorted and turned back to the other boys as Irvine stifled a laugh, pulling Wells back onto his side. The blonde smirked to himself. It was always the girls giving him compliments, and the (straight) guys telling him he was ugly or "fat." Hey, he thought, just because you're all scrawny little rat-asses, doesn't mean a guy with nice muscles has gotta be fat. Why don't you all ask your girlfriends _their_ opinions?

Irvine continued calling.

"Emery! (..._Act_ _Like this. The only time you act like a total prick is when you have girl trouble or when you get in a fight with mommy and daddy...)"_

Seifer scowled at him.

"Bickson! (_Are you kidding?)"_

"(_Not at all. And I know your folks are out of town...so...) _Casasanta!"

"Holmes! (_You're off the mark, shit-for-brains.)" _Seifer growled under his breath, and if it had been anyone but Irvine, he would have been taken aback.

"Rice! (_..Looks like someone needs a nap_.)" Irvine mocked with a little smirk, not looking in Seifer's direction.

"Chang! (_...It's nothing, okay?)" _The tall blonde sighed and gave a dry roll of his eyes as the other Chang tripped over his own feet while jogging over to Seifer's team.

"DeVoe! (_I'm sure it is.)" _Irvine smirked and leaned over toward his companion. "(_But I do wonder why sweet little Squall was so shaken up this morning...)"_

Green eyes flickered like flurrying leaves and Seifer turned all the way to stare at Irvine for a long moment. The blonde's hand went up to press against his forehead and a weird look found his face. Seifer opened his mouth as if to say something, but it ended in him just closing it silently again. He shook his head and looked away from Irvine's extremely amused stare.

They continued calling teams without another word to each other.

-o-

"Fess up, Almasy! What happened last night?"

One stiff, bright-red ball flew at Seifer and it grazed his ear as he turned his head out of the way. He forced a foot back and gritted his teeth as he brought his right arm swinging with heavy momentum. This red ball released with a little spin and flew out of his hand, right at the cowboy.

"Why should I tell you?" He narrowed his eyes and quickly hopped out of the way of another ball out of some other direction.

"Hup!" Irvine grunted a bit and pulled up a skinny leg, the ball from Seifer's hand slamming onto the ground where his foot had been. It let out a loud slap and bounced up behind him, hitting one Chang on Irvine's side. Glancing around, Irvine spotted a red ball rolling between the legs of his shouting comrades, and somersaulted by it, curling it up in his elbow and turning, rolling it down his forearm to his poised hand and pelting it at Seifer.

"Come on, buddy!" Irvine yelled, hand flying up to brush away a small sweat on his forehead, another random ball whizzing at him and hitting against the long tail of auburn hair that flew up as his head ducked down. He glanced up apprehensively and grunted again before smirking. "You tried something with Squall, didn't you?" He gave a narrow smirk and a sharp cock of his head as another ball flew past and grazed his neck.

"Keep your ideas to yourself!" Seifer yelled out shortly, hopping over an idle ball that was rolling on his floor and turning quickly to see many of his teammates had fallen. He slid down gracefully and a bead of sweat rolled along his temple as he easily clutched the abrasive material of another ball, jumping back up with a push of his leg and whirling his arm around, releasing the red ball into the air. He panted a bit and dodged a lazy ball coming for his ankle, noticing that the attacks were lessening. "Shouldn't you be worried about that psycho bitch from English?"

"Don't change the subject!" Irvine laughed shortly, smirking as he caught the ball straight in his left hand. He narrowed crystal-blue eyes and juggled it sharply into his right hand, pelting it back with a jolt.

Seifer cursed under his breath and ducked back Matrix-style as the ball bulleted right over his head. He turned with a quick hitch of his ankle, and an idle ball rolled onto the top of his foot. Flicking his ankle sharply and turning his foot up, the ball flew straight up from his foot and into his hand.

They were the last two left, Seifer and Irvine, and it was very obvious why they were always chosen to be the team captains. The other boys watched with increasing interest.

"Getting worn out, Kinneas?" The blonde mocked, chest burning and heart hammering with adrenaline. Irvine was in a similar state.

"Changing the subject!" The auburn-haired young man grunted slightly, eyes darting around quickly for a ball.

"Shut it!" Seifer narrowed his candy-green eyes, putting a foot back as he threw another ball right for Irvine's shoulder.

Irvine spotted a ball on his side and he dove for it, just barely missing the ball that Seifer had thrown just a split-second before. Still crouching on the floor, he mumbled a curse then smiled when he saw that the blonde was busying himself trying to find a ball for himself. This was an opportune moment. He pulled his arm back, poised to shoot.

"You just don't want to admit she doesn't want you!" He yelled out with a wild grin, just catching the blonde's sudden, confused look as his ball flew straight out of his hand, slamming straight into Seifer's face.

Then, there was a long, drawn-out silence, as wide-eyed boys watched the odd picture. The ball had bounced, and eventually rolled, away from Seifer, Irvine was sitting back on his ass, panting and sweating and leaning back, and the whole gym was silent for a split-second.

And suddenly, Seifer blinked the blank look away, a feral glare in his fiery green eyes, and he pushed himself forward off the floor, onto Irvine, with his fist flying into the cowboy's face.

"AH!" Nida shouted, jumping up from his place sitting on the floor, tugging at the Coach's sleeve. "Coach, stop him! The game's over!"

The Coach was silent and watched as Irvine struggled weakly against his face being pounded in. The lanky boy's long limbs were flailing in a way that could only be humorous to someone like DoomTrain.

"Coach!" Nida grunted. He started to run at Seifer and Irvine, but the coach stopped him with a strong arm. Nida turned and glanced at him with an anxious look. "I have to stop them!"

"NO." DoomTrain shook his head slowly, and a grin stretched his wide mouth. "VERY AMUSING, THEY ARE."

-o-0-o-

"That's the one," Selphie whispered to her friend. "She thinks she's sooo cool. What a joke."

The brown-haired girl and her friend sat on yoga mats in the dance room as Squall moved about his small space of the room, making idle circles as he practiced turning. Selphie huffed, kicking her legs once and brushing her hair away vainly. Her friend's gaze traveled back and forth between her and Squall, amused.

"D'yah even know her, Selphie?" the girl asked with a dubious look, and Selphie folded her arms across her chest, narrowing green eyes at Squall.

"Look at that!" she complained, ignoring her friend's question. Her small lips twisted into a scowl. "Just dancin' about when Instructor Trepe isn't even here yet! Like, who does that slut think she is?"

"Mm-hmm," the girl said, bored, closing her eyes halfway and leaning back on her arms. "Yep."

Selphie turned her gaze toward the friend with an irritated look. Her thin brown eyebrows were pulled down in a distant glare.

"Just shut it," she said curtly, and the friend lifted a lazy eyebrow at the rude brunette.

"Selph-"

"Teacher's pet," Selphie mumbled, leaning forward and glaring across the room at Squall, in his unusual outfit, fixing the way he turned his foot. "Newbie. Faker. Ugly. Homo."

The friend's eyes grew slightly wide and she sat up, glancing at Selphie, who was now staring very darkly at poor, unaware Squall. Squall's short brown hair was bobbing in an odd way as he turned and frustration was growing more and more evident on his face. Selphie seemed satisfied by this.

"Um, Selphie?" the friend asked meekly. Selphie didn't look at her.

"Wot is it?" she asked, small smirk growing as Squall slipped a bit and almost fell on his face. Her thin hands clapped together quietly and she jumped slightly as he stumbled about a bit more. The friend was now fully watching Selphie. Was she sadistic or something? The girl couldn't help but wonder what that poor new kid could have possibly done in one day to make Selphie hate her so. Then again, she reminded herself, Selphie was the type that could hate someone for very stupid reasons.

"What...like...Why are you so mad about her?"

She noticed a burning flame in Selphie's eyes, and it made a chill run down her spine. Selphie honestly looked like an evil person. Someone with truly malicious intent. The brunette gritted her teeth and glanced away from Squall for a moment at her friend.

"I talked to Irvine last night," she said under her breath hotly, lowering her gaze to her palms. The friend hummed and watched her inquisitively.

"That...that heartless bastard..." she looked angrier than ever at this point, "I...we were together last year, and I've been trying to track that dumb shit-face down forever…"

The friend nodded again, wondering how this had anything to do with the new kid. Then again, she knew Selphie was in one of her "moments" and that any attempts to calm down an angry Selphie could be accurately compared to trying to nail jell-o to a tree.

Suddenly, Selphie was staring at the friend, and she looked very anguished.

"I found him last night, and...and do you know what that bastard told me?"

The friend, wide-eyed, shook her head slowly and leaned in, attentive.

"He...he told me..." Selphie looked away to glare darkly at Squall again. "He told me that I'm not _hot_ enough. He said I first need to be as hot...as..."

The friend held her breath and then released it silently, understanding what was next. Selphie's thin brown eyebrow dropped down in a sharp frown.

"...As that ugly _whore_. I hate that Squall. He ruined everything..."

"Who?" the friend blinked.

Selphie realized her blunder and then considered if she should get her revenge by revealing Squall's gender. After a moment of careful consideration, however, she saw a better way to utilize her knowledge.

"Sorry," she mumbled, watching Squall with a new interest in her eyes, "I meant to say 'she.'"

The friend blinked and nodded with a little hum, glancing over at Squall, who was sitting with his eyes closed at this point, arms hugging his knees to his chest. To her, the new kid didn't really look like someone to hate, but someone to watch from a distance the overwhelming sweetness. And so, that is what the friend did. She watched from a distance.

Selphie, on the other hand, seemed to think, as always, that direct, obnoxious confrontation was the best solution.

"YO! Newbie!" Selphie hopped up and bounded across the room, driving to quick halt when she reached Squall, who was seated alone near the corner of the studio. He immediately dropped his arms from around his knees and turned to look up, a comically irate expression finding his delicate face.

"S-Selphie." He acknowledged in a low voice under his breath, figuring he didn't need to try to sound more feminine, since this crazy girl already knew about him. Though, how she knew, Squall had yet to come to understand.

"Now, you listen to me, and listen to me good," she said sternly, a figurative aura of professionalism surrounding her as she dropped down beside Squall. She lowered her voice, narrowing her green eyes cautiously, and leaned in toward Squall. A bit confused, he leaned to her side as well.

"...So." Selphie frowned intensely at Squall and he lifted a dark brow. The brown-haired girl brought her pointer finger up for emphasis and opened her mouth slowly. "We both know here that you're really a guy..."

Impulsively, Squall's brow pinched down in a deep frown, but his expression softened a bit and he nodded, an anxious glimmer in his silver-blue eyes.

"And, for some reason, though I'm not really sure why," she said with a small roll of her eyes, "my Irvine seems to think you're better looking than I am." She huffed and tapped her foot against the ground, rocking once. Squall's icy-blue eyes widened slightly, and he made a doubtful face. "Her" Irvine? Something about this conversation was looking about to go downhill.

Squall cleared his throat quietly.

"Oh...okay." He mumbled with a tone that suggested she explain to him the point of their conversation.

"Now," she continued, in a more professional tone again, "I'm gonna make this easy. I think you pretty much guessed that I have complete power of you now..." her tone held a little smirk to it, and Squall held in a groan as she continued. "So, this should be easy, right? All I'm saying is...you just stay the heck away from Irvine."

His dark eyebrows shot up, and he couldn't hold in a small laugh.

"Are you kidding?" he asked quietly, relief evident on his feminine face. Her moss-green eyes continued to watch him suspiciously, and Selphie leaned back self-consciously.

"No," she said with a pointed glance. "So are yah gonna do it?"

"Gladly," he leaned in, smiling in a small, but obvious way. He didn't know why he was so happy. After all, Selphie was only asking him to do something that he was planning on doing in the first place.

"Really?" She blinked, then shrugged, looking down at her toes and wiggling them playfully. "Well...we're all good, then. I guess I thought this would be harder coz I thought you were gay."

Squall's smile fell.

"Why?" he demanded quickly. Selphie glanced over, a little confused, and then gave him a doubtful stare.

"Oh, I don't know," she started sardonically, "I guess it might be the whole dressing-up-as-a-girl thing."

The silver-blue eyed brunette opened his mouth to say something, but frowned and shut his lips together silently. His eyes darkened considerably as Selphie watched with veiled interest.

"Even...even if I am gay-" and he stopped, with a very sharp, pointed glance at Selphie, "-which I'm _not_-" he looked back down at his feet. "...I wouldn't be near him for anything." His mouth twisted in disgust and Selphie sighed loudly with a shrug, standing up and brushing off her short black dance skirt.

"Whatever...yah shoulda realized by now that nobody here really cares if you're gay." She glanced down at his shocked expression with a tiny smile. "I mean, half of the guys here are, anyway. And if that's the reason you're pretending to be a girl, I'd have to say...yah made a pretty funny mistake. Yeah..." She smiled. "...Pretty funny."

"..."

Selphie leaned down and pursed her lips.

"...Though, yah know, yah looked better yesterday. Someone might realize you're a guy without all that makeup."

She then waved and ran off to her friend. Squall watched her go, eyes narrowed and darkened almost to black.

"I..." he breathed hotly, clenching his teeth and fists, "...am _not_ gay."

-o-0-o-

"You found your sister okay last night, I hope?" Zephyr smiled his handsome smile, and, for some reason, just the knowledge that this silver-haired young man was gay made Squall just the slightest bit more uncomfortable.

"Yeah," he answered quietly, eyes flying open as Zell jumped right in his face with a huge grin. The pure-blue-eyed blonde grinned widely and waved erratically at the slightly taken-aback Squall as Seifer walked into the room, apparently ignoring Squall.

Zeph smiled. With Squall at their school, suddenly, every moment was a bit more exciting. And amusing.

The silver-blue eyed brunette nearly choked and stepped back from Zell, hand placed over his heart in aftershock. He donned a slightly aggravated look and glanced at the crested blonde, who halted his hyperactive antics abruptly.

"S-Sorry!" he said, scratching his cheek sheepishly. Squall took a deep breath and nodded.

"It's okay, just...don't...scare me like that..."

"'Eifer!" Zeph called out, jogging a few feet over to a rather angry-looking blonde. Seifer walked over to his seat and set down his sax case, glancing over to see Squall over in the drums section with Zell. He narrowed his candy-green eyes and twisted his mouth up crookedly in a humorless smile, dropping tiredly into his seat.

"Hey," he said roughly, clearing his throat as Zeph watched him curiously.

The teal-eyed boy knew Seifer very well, and he knew not to question the blonde's mood unless he wanted to be pounded into Zeph-dust. Instead, he brought up a better topic of conversation, sitting in the seat beside Seifer and smiling to himself.

"So..." he started with that handsome smile, "did you see him?"

Seifer leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, the beginning of dark circles forming just barely beneath his eyes.

"See who?" he asked, obviously tired and uninterested. Zephyr only smiled a bit more and leaned forward, turning his head to watch the blonde with a happy look. His hair tumbled along his shoulder as he turned, catching the fluorescent lighting from above, and unintentionally blinding some kids standing nearby for just a moment.

"My boyfriend!" Zeph said excitedly, and Seifer slowly opened one eye at his friend, arms folded behind his head as he leaned his chair on its two back legs.

"Boyfriend," Seifer repeated with a little grunt. "I thought you were making that up."

Zeph made a little fake pout at his blonde friend, poking him in the side and making him sit up with a bit of a ruffled, not-morning-person look.

"Dude, no!" He laughed at Seifer's irritated look. "He took the train from Dollet last night, came to _your _party!" Suddenly, his slim silver eyebrows rose by a centimetre, and he narrowed his aqua-green eyes suspiciously. "...Which reminds me...Why weren't you even there?"

"I was," Seifer corrected with a lazy glance. "I was just late."

"By 5 hours, right?" Zeph laughed at his green-eyed friend's dubious look. Seifer shrugged and looked away to see Squall walking over. The blonde sat up and let his chair back down on its four legs, unfolding his ankles and bringing his arms down from behind his head. Zephyr's teal eyes lit up as Squall approached, and he waved the brunette over quickly.

"Squall!" He said, and Squall watched him with detached curiosity. "Come here."

The brunette had no choice, really. His seat was next to Zeph and Seifer, after all. Squall slowly walked over, not looking at Seifer once. The blonde didn't look at him, either.

"What is it?" Squall asked tiredly, dropping down tiredly in his seat, already worn out by Zell's overzealous friendliness. He wore that long, layered skirt thing, however, and didn't need to worry about letting anything show. It was really much better than the day before.

"Seifer here doesn't want to believe me," he said with a laugh. "But Eric is real! Just tell him, Squall!" He looked about ready to crack up.

And he would have, until he realized that both Squall and Seifer were looking away, both silent and neither smiling. The platinum-blonde, teal-eyed boy pursed his lips together and his smile fell quickly.

Suddenly, Zeph realized at least _who_ might have been involved in creating Seifer's bad mood, if not why, when, or how.

He laughed sheepishly and his gaze traveled slowly between the two.

"Uh, so, let's practice. Same way as yesterday?"

Neither said a thing, nor did either of them move to set up their saxophones. Zeph sighed and pulled his instrument up to his lips, setting his gaze on the notes, and started to play. Neither of the other two showed any sign that they were going to follow. They just sat in silence and listened to Zephyr's awkward playing.

-o-0-o-

"Squall!"

Squall had been the first to stand right as the bell rang for lunch, and Seifer's neck seemed to be permanently stuck sideways as the blonde still glared at the wall. Zeph called out after the brunette and stopped him, pulling him over to the corner for a minute. Seifer saw this as an opportunity to leave.

So he did.

"What is it?" Squall, rather vexed, looked up tiredly and folded his arms. His saxophone case hadn't been opened.

"Um..." Zeph started awkwardly, "Do you want to eat lunch with me?"

Squall blinked slowly, looking away lazily before looking back up into teal eyes. He shrugged slightly.

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I said I'd eat with Rinoa." He started to turn to walk away, but Zeph stopped him again. Slowly, the brunette turned back, silver-blue eyes darkening in an intimidating manner as he glanced back up. "What?"

Zeph crooked an eyebrow at him. "You sure about that? I mean..." the corner of his mouth twitched up just a bit, "..._Seifer_ is going with her, you know."

Squall's eyes widened now and sparked like electric ice, quickly searching Zeph's aqua-green eyes for any sign of a fib.

"Since when?" he demanded quietly, leaning forward by a millimetre. The platinum-haired young man laughed quietly, glancing up to see they were the last kids left in class.

"Since Little-Rinoa-Riding-Hood got a monster crush on the big, bad, blonde wolf." He laughed aloud at his joke. Squall, however, would have found being stuck in a well with five man-eating spiders on one side and Irvine on the other side funnier than this.

"What are you talking about?" He growled, looking slightly panicked. Zeph shook his head and started walking away, waving his arm up as a gesture for Squall to follow him.

Torn, Squall stared after Zeph for a moment before deciding to go after him.

-o-0-o-

"So, tell me about yourself."

The two were seated in a corner at the bottom of a courtyard with small sets of steps and landings in random places. More precisely, they were sitting on the edge of the river-like fountain that ran around the edge of the courtyard. Flowers, declining from the height of bloom as the chilly nip of autumn weather made itself more obvious, were fighting to stay up as long as they could. The water flowed serenely, carrying the soft fallen petals that dotted its surface.

Balamb really did have some beautiful little places, Squall decided, if one chose to look closely enough.

"Hmm." Squall looked up into teal eyes that were studying him intensely, and glanced back down with a frustrated sigh. "I live with my sister. I like to dance. I don't know..." he glanced up again, frowning slightly. "What do you want me to say?"

Zeph laughed his pleasant laugh, and it seemed to reverberate about the enclosed corner's cool stone walls.

"You know, Squall," the silver-haired boy remarked, forking a small bite of plain, buttered rotini into his mouth, "I really have no idea why, but I kinda like you." He grinned, and Squall pursed his lips, looking down at a delicately curled pink petal traveling at a torturously slow rate across the water. It kind of reminded Squall of their current conversation. Slow.

"Okay."

"...So does Seifer," Zeph said at length, and a sharp silver-blue glance was shot in his direction. Squall frowned.

"Who cares?" He asked flatly, and Zeph pulled his fork of noodles away from his mouth just as he was about to bite.

"...Sometimes I wonder..." he started quietly, turning to pick a small pink flower from a vine before gently placing it on the fountain path to float away, "...like, what's the deal with people's hearts? I mean...I wonder what a girl would say if she falls in love and finds out her boyfriend is really a girl, too." He glanced at Squall. "Do you think people's genders determine everything?"

'_Coincidence'_ was the first thing that popped into Squall's head. He ignored the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach and hummed quietly, dipping his finger into the sluice and drawing circles in the water.

"You're asking this because you're gay, right?" he said quietly, not looking up. Zeph was silent for a moment.

"Well...mostly because I'm wondering what you think about it."

The brunette looked up.

"I don't have an opinion." He looked down at the water again. Again, Zeph watched him silently, chewing on a bite of buttered noodles.

"...Do you know what sexuality is?" he asked after a moment, and Squall's gaze shot up to meet his inquisitively.

"I'm not in kindergarten," was the brunette's sardonic reply. Zephyr hummed and put his half-eaten plate down, leaning back and gazing up at the sky, listening to the calm sound of flowing water.

"I know that," the silver-haired boy said quietly. "But can you really define it?"

Squall was silenced. Thick, dark lashes rose up with his gaze, and he watched Zeph soundlessly.

"Yeah," Zeph continued with a short little laugh, "that's what I thought."

"...Okay..." The brunette, though his interest was now piqued, decided not to ask further. Something told him the other young man would explain without him asking, anyway.

"Sexuality is...like...inside your mind. It's all in your mind." Zeph started vaguely, and Squall listened carefully, though he looked away. "It's an internal thing...sexuality...is how you see yourself in society when next to other people. Kind of get it?" He glanced over at Squall, who was frowning very lightly and his pale blue eyes were shining, swimming with quicksilver highlights.

'_Yeah_,' Zeph sighed silently, '_she's really pretty_.'

"I think so. It makes sense," Squall added very quietly, glancing up at Zeph. "...So what's your point?"

The fair-haired young man smiled and looked back up at the pale sky.

"Now, listen to this." Zeph started again. "Questioning your sexuality has to be more than just wondering if you like someone of your own gender. Isn't it questioning sexuality when a cheerleader is suddenly in love with a geek? Or when a princess falls for a pauper instead of the prince?" Zeph's smile widened just a bit. "Isn't it questioning sexuality when a Montague falls for a Capulet?"

"...It is?" Squall wondered, trying to see what the other was talking about. He could see it...just vaguely, though.

"Oh, yes." Eyelids came closed over teal eyes and Zeph smiled even more. "If sexuality is how you see yourself in society, then suddenly realizing you're close to someone who you've typecast as just not being the kind of person that could be with you...is questioning your sexuality."

Squall blinked.

"Oh..."

"Isn't it interesting?" Zeph brought himself back to a normal position and picked up his plate of noodles again. "Just the way we've set ourselves in believing that a popular girl can't go out with the geekiest kid in the A/V club, we've set ourselves in believing that a guy can't go out with another guy. That's all it is."

Squall hummed and dropped his finger back into the water, swirling it around and soaking in everything that the silver-haired young man had said. Granted, he had said a lot, but it was a pretty simple idea.

"Yeah...that's cool." Squall smiled slightly and looked up. "But you know, I never said I disapprove of you being gay or anything."

Zephyr laughed.

"I wasn't discussing _my_ situation," he explained. "I was helping you with _yours_."

The brunette opened his mouth to say something, but words lost him again. He frowned up at Zeph questioningly, wondering what, exactly, he was trying to say.

"Listen..." The teal-eyed boy leaned in slightly, lowering his voice. "...About Seifer..."

Squall leaned away with a quick, impulsive roll of his eyes. "Stop while you're ahead," he mumbled.

"No, seriously..." Zeph leaned in a bit more. "Maybe you didn't notice, but he really doesn't have any real friends..."

The brunette stared at Zeph, confusion evident on his face. He lifted an eyebrow slightly as he considered this.

"What about Irvine?" he asked quietly, and Zeph resisted the urge to snort.

"If I had a million bucks for every time they had any sort of connection with any meaning whatsoever..." the teal-eyed boy said with an odd look on his face, then a laugh, "Well...I'd be living on the streets."

Squall hummed in acknowledgement and let himself laugh shortly.

"Well...you're his friend, aren't you?" the brunette asked.

Zeph glanced away quickly, and this struck Squall as somewhat suspicious. The platinum-haired young man cleared his throat and shrugged slightly.

"Actually, that's not something I'd care to explain at this point," he said, indicating he was cutting that branch off their conversation right then. "Just take my word for it."

"..."

"Well...with that aside...honestly...I don't think I've seen Seifer really _smile_...for, what, two years now? This might seem wrong of me, but all I'm saying is...if you could find it in yourself to question your sexuality and warm up to a 'stuck up prick' like him..." He sighed and looked away. "I think you'll find something that you wouldn't expect."

Squall's eyes narrowed slightly and he frowned, but Zeph continued.

"Maybe I shouldn't be asking you this, but I really think he needs someone like you."

"What are-"

"And," he cut off, "I think you'll realize you need it, too."

This was all too much. Questioning sexuality to go for someone with a disagreeable personality was one thing, but Zeph didn't realize the fact that Squall was also a guy. Even though, Squall argued in his mind, Zephyr had been trying to make the whole point that there was no difference between the types of questioning, he couldn't help but think that there was. There was just that nagging uncomfortable feeling inside Squall.

Besides, he wasn't gay.

"Zephyr..." he glanced up apologetically into the teal eyes that were shining dimly with hope. "...I'm sorry."

Zeph was silent for a moment and then leaned back with a half-hearted sigh.

"...I see," he said at length, picking up his plate and dumping it in the empty courtyard's garbage bin, "Thanks for listening, anyway."

The brunette nodded slowly, watching as the fair-haired boy slowly walked over to the glass doors only a few yards away and pushed inside the high school, disappearing from his vision behind the pale tinted glass.

Squall leaned on his arm and watched as a small, perfectly shaped purple petal drifted along, slowly going on its lonely way...

-o-0-o-

Weird way to end a chapter, I know.

I'm so happy is done...but, like, OOPS...coz this update took me 16 days, and it's really short, too.

Well, 8,000 words might be long for some people, but it's pretty short for me. I'm purposely not writing super long chapters all the time, though, because if I set that sort of goal, chapters would just keep getting longer and longer, and eventually you wouldn't be getting updates for like, months at a time. xD

Though, when you think about it, the basic plot content of one of my 8,000-10,000 chapters is the same as if someone else would write it in 1,000 words. I mean, if I had someone else do a re-write of this story so far, it could probably all be done in like, 5,000 words. But, I have my own writing style, I suppose, and it's not going to change.../sigh/

BTW, Didn't you love it when Seifer's face got smashed by the dodgeball? XD

REVIEW:D (And please do tell me if you understand what Zephyr was talking about with sexuality. I mean, I have this wonderful theory that I had Zefie try to explain, but it didn't seem to me to come out right! Ughh.)

**Zephyr:** The basic idea is, EVERYBODY IS BISEXUAL/throws confetti/

Squalmasies aweigh!


End file.
